Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - **1/2
Now Playing: (2004, Adam McKay) [seen in theatre]
The newsroom has been fertile ground for a number of television sitcoms for years, but with this film, it has made its presence felt in big-screen comedy as well (let's forget last summer's debacle BRUCE ALMIGHTY). Here Will Ferrell, riding a hot streak after ELF, stars as "legendary" 70s newscaster Ron Burgundy, whose job security and personal pride are threatened by the arrival of female reporter Veronica (Christina Applegate) in the newsroom in which he holds court. This being the 70s, Burgundy as his all-male News Team maintain a boys' club environment, full of dirty jokes and male swagger, but Veronica's presence necessitates more sensitivity and (what would eventually be called) political correctness. Many of the film's funniest moments come from their reluctance (to put it mildly) to adapt to the changing times, along with their attempts to drive Veronica away, and Ferrell and costars Paul Rudd (as the ladies'-man field reporter), David Koechner (macho sportscaster), and Steve Carrell (stealing scene after scene as the mentally-deficient weatherman) tear into these scenes with great energy and aplomb. Applegate is good too, making a sturdy comic foil for the guys as her character struggles to maintain her integrity in the madhouse. Ferrell also gets a lot of comic mileage out of the running gag involving Burgundy allegedly being a lothario, while Ferrell remains his pudgy self (it worked for Ben and Owen in ZOOLANDER, and it works again here). The plot machinery begins to rumble at roughly an hour in, after Ron and Veronica reach their respective breaking points and then the film must work to reunite them and land the happy ending, but even after this point there are plenty of good laughs. The film's anecdotal structure is a little off-putting at first, but it works overall because it's in keeping with the idea of the "legend" found right there in the title. Legends, after all, are never simply defined by one story, but by different stories told by different tellers. The film isn't ambitious enough to really delve into the layers of Burgundy's legend, but it made me laugh a lot, and that was plenty for me. Plus it was refreshing that many of the film's best bits weren't in the trailer (in fact, many of the shots in the trailers are missing from the film), which allows for maximum enjoyment of some very funny moments and surprise cameos.