Doesn't live up to the hype

Rating: 3/10 (19 December 2004)

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)
How stupid is this? Well, pretty stupid. Consider the scene where the News at Five teams from the various local stations (in San Diego) square off, gladiator style complete with tridents, swords and axes. Or how about Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) reading everything put on the teleprompter--"You put it there, he'll read it" including the "f" word. Or the musical score in the background, a selection of the most sappy seventies tunes including (God help us) "Skyrockets in flight/Afternoon delight." I watched this on a United Airlines flight and took a read on the other passengers. The guy in the window seat was in and out of sleep most of the time, and there weren't many of the other passengers laughing, at least not aloud. However I have to say almost everybody put on their headsets and watched. I attribute that to the mass bucks the producers spent on advertising. I just had to check it out.
And it WAS kind of fascinating to see a film done this way, so much so that even if you don't laugh, you might be glued to the tube anyway. The satirical idea is to lampoon TV news anchors as empty-headed, surface kind of people who wouldn't know a differential equation from their hair spray. Ferrell is perfectly shallow and vain and arrogant--and that is right on target. However he proves the counterpoint to the movie's premise by actually being Quite a Guy, especially in the scene at the bar restaurant when he gets up to play the flute. He plays one mean flute, I gotta tell you.
Ferrell gets support from Christine Applegate as Veronica Corningstone who wants to become the anchorperson herself. Most comedy fans will remember Applegate as the ditsy and voluptuous Kelly from TV's "Married with Children" where she started out when she was something like 14-years-old. However, you might not recognize her at first glance since (1) she is trimmer, although she still has a bodacious figure; and (2) she's had the pre-mature wrinkles under her eyes surgically removed and her face looks a little different.
Although this is a burlesque of the "reality" at your local news station, some of it is strangely real. For example, the lead story constantly being the latest update on the panda bears at the San Diego Zoo and the media frenzy surrounding them is pretty much true. Also real was the fanatical insistence by the TV producers (as a means to higher ratings) to feature human interest and crime stories as entertainment for couch potatoes.
One of the funniest bits in the movie is near the beginning when Ron Burgundy tries out his unique pick-up style on Veronica by telling her that she has one very fine rear engine...or words to that effect, and she comes back with something like, "You sure know how to flatter a girl," the sarcasm as heavy as molasses in January at the North Pole.
See this for Will Ferrell, whose over-the-top performance fascinates even when he isn't funny, and just kind of zone out on the dead parts that don't quite make it.