Running time: 91 minutes
Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard
Rating 7 out of 10
American news presenters are so upbeat and perfectly groomed that even when revealing details of an horrific tragedy, they have a way of making it seem like they're selling a tropical cruise. It's seen as a way of making misfortune somehow more palatable. As a result, they have not only become celebrities, but their smarmy delivery, gleaming teeth and flawless hair have made them easy targets for ridicule. It's a target which the hilarious Anchorman hits with unerring accuracy and great regularity, scoring more than the occasional bullseye.
Will Ferrell has quickly established himself as the champion exponent of the great white dork. It was a persona he developed in his years at Saturday Night Live and has now honed in films like Old School and Elf. He is masterful at exploiting his inner child, bringing a harmless sense of wonderment and innocence to his roles. Free of cynicism and possessed of a highly developed sense of the absurd, Ferrell is able to make even the pompous, self-centred Ron Burgundy endearing.
Burgundy is the anchorman at KVWN in San Diego. His manicured locks and handlebar mustache are as recognizable as his catchphrase, "You stay classy San Diego." Along with his three colleagues, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), they form the tightly knit and devoutly sexist news team. Anchorman is set in the 1970s, a time when TV newsrooms were the exclusive domain of men. So when the station boss Ed (Fred Willard) introduces the ambitious Veronica Corningstone (a game Christina Applegate) as the latest addition to the news team, Ron and the others are suitably indignant. "It's anchorman, not anchorlady," they point out.
First time director and SNL alum Adam McKay has, along with his co-writer Ferrell, produced ninety minutes of inane, nonsensical and completely irresistible silliness. The only criteria is to be as stupid as possible, a spirit encapsulated in the film's tagline, "They bring you the news so you don't have get it yourself."
Good dental hygiene is of far greater importance to an anchorman than brains. It's why Ron is programmed to stick to the auto-cue, even if it occasionally throws him. Like the time errant punctuation turned his signing off line into a question "I'm Ron Burgundy?" And why he tries to impress newcomer Veronica by insisting that the name San Diego derives from the German for whale's vagina.
But if Ron is dumb, then Brick is the dumbest. With an IQ of 49, the weatherman (played with sublime deadpan vacancy by Carell) interjects non-sequiturs that wouldn't be out of place in a Beckett play. The joke continues in the prologue which states that Brick went on to become a political advisor in the Bush administration. Funny as the line is, what makes it and the rest of Anchorman so hilarious is that it is all too plausible.
Will Ferrell has quickly established himself as the champion exponent of the great white dork. It was a persona he developed in his years at Saturday Night Live and has now honed in films like Old School and Elf. He is masterful at exploiting his inner child, bringing a harmless sense of wonderment and innocence to his roles. Free of cynicism and possessed of a highly developed sense of the absurd, Ferrell is able to make even the pompous, self-centred Ron Burgundy endearing.
Burgundy is the anchorman at KVWN in San Diego. His manicured locks and handlebar mustache are as recognizable as his catchphrase, "You stay classy San Diego." Along with his three colleagues, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), they form the tightly knit and devoutly sexist news team. Anchorman is set in the 1970s, a time when TV newsrooms were the exclusive domain of men. So when the station boss Ed (Fred Willard) introduces the ambitious Veronica Corningstone (a game Christina Applegate) as the latest addition to the news team, Ron and the others are suitably indignant. "It's anchorman, not anchorlady," they point out.
First time director and SNL alum Adam McKay has, along with his co-writer Ferrell, produced ninety minutes of inane, nonsensical and completely irresistible silliness. The only criteria is to be as stupid as possible, a spirit encapsulated in the film's tagline, "They bring you the news so you don't have get it yourself."
Good dental hygiene is of far greater importance to an anchorman than brains. It's why Ron is programmed to stick to the auto-cue, even if it occasionally throws him. Like the time errant punctuation turned his signing off line into a question "I'm Ron Burgundy?" And why he tries to impress newcomer Veronica by insisting that the name San Diego derives from the German for whale's vagina.
But if Ron is dumb, then Brick is the dumbest. With an IQ of 49, the weatherman (played with sublime deadpan vacancy by Carell) interjects non-sequiturs that wouldn't be out of place in a Beckett play. The joke continues in the prologue which states that Brick went on to become a political advisor in the Bush administration. Funny as the line is, what makes it and the rest of Anchorman so hilarious is that it is all too plausible.
