D.C. MOVIE GUYS

The most overrated of the many comedians to make their way from Saturday Night Live to the big screen, Will Ferrell makes his star vehicle debut in Anchorman—The Legend of Ron Burgundy. But as with his work on SNL, a little bit of Ferrell goes a long way and this modestly satirical comedy is nowhere near as funny as its makers appear to think it is.
Ferrell impersonates Ron Burgundy, a ‘70s era local news anchor working in San Diego (“German for whale’s vagina” as the stupid Burgundy helpfully informs a female colleague). His “Newscenter 4” show is the top-rated affiliate news show in those pre-cable times (the other local anchors are a series of cameos by Mr. Ferrell’s former co-stars including Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, and Tim Robbins) and Ron and the newly hired reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) have hit if off personally. But on the day Ron fails to show for the show (his dog has been punted off a bridge by a biker that Burgundy obliviously assaulted), Veronica fills in and, faster than you can say Eve Harrington, the show’s executive producer (Fred Willard) turns the two Ronnies into co-anchors. Escalating practical jokes finally end with an inadvertent on-air obscenity that sends the co-pilots in separate directions.
Leaving aside that most of the satire is of the “fish in the barrel” variety (who would have thought that the people reading the news are dimwitted airheads—“And this is Ted Baxter saying, ‘Good night and good newts—news’”), the movie could be improved by just having a little more of it. As with other recent SNL alums turned motion picture leading men as Mike Myers and Tim Meadows, their movies are usually little more than one joke told over and again. The supporting players (especially Applegate and Steve Carell as the news team weatherman—Jim Carrey’s rival newscaster from Bruce Almighty) add a little here and there, but we are mostly stuck with Ferrell who becomes as interminable as one of his cheerleader sketches. An extended sequence in which Ferrell (as part of his seduction technique) plays the jazz flute at a club is particularly excruciating.
Will Ferrell is perfectly capable of able support in an ensemble work, but if forced to carry an entire movie, he requires a lot more jokes than this half-baked screenplay by Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay can provide. And since McKay is an old SNL crony of Ferrell’s anyway, it is doubtful that he got the job because of his willingness to stand up to his big star and tell him when he is the only one still laughing.

Joe’s View

1/2

The state of local television news coverage has been a topic of controversy and debate, not to mention critical analysis, for nearly thirty years. Programs that constantly stress the rising level of violence in our cities, “stories” largely constructed and provided to stations by public relation firms and lame, joke laden “happy talk” between anchors and reporters have all become highly visible landmarks of the changing face of local news.
Those changes began for the most part in the 1970’s, an era which always seems ripe for satire and spoofing. Writer/director Adam McKay and actor Will Ferrell, fresh from their surprising success with last year’s “Elf”, would seem to have more than enough talent to bring plenty of laughs to the topic. Unfortunately, the just released “Anchorman” falls far short of the mark, wondering off in a number of directions at once and never establishing a direct line between its jokes, its plot and its characters. There were plenty of targets ripe for plucking, but they scamper away, barely touched.
Ferrell is Ron Burgundy, the highest rated news anchor in San Diego, California in 1972. Burgundy is at the top of the numbers and he and his Channel Four news team are princes of the city. These crazy news boys work hard all day and party hard all night. They’re popular despite the fact that street reporter Brian is a preening bob, sports guy Champ is a monosyllabic know nothing and weatherman Brick, well, lives up to his name. Burgundy is their on and off screen leader, a man of limited vision and even less insight who us certain he is the creator’s gift to women everywhere.
Things begin to take a turn when station management decides to hire a female reporter to meet network goals for diversity. Veronica is blonde, beautiful and no bimbo. Her career goal is to become an anchorwoman, but all management will give her are stories covering local cat fashion shows. The boys on the team don’t care. To them, she’s fresh conquest meat. But when King Burgundy makes his move, he finds he might just be in love. Being the thoughtful and sensitive man he is, Ron promptly damages the relationship by blabbing about it publicly. When Veronica gets an unexpected opportunity to fill in for Ron, she raises the ratings-and the network instructs the station’s news director to make Veronica Ron’s co-anchor. Burgundy-surprise-responds badly, leading to a war of nerves, Ron’s downfall and a final chance at redemption and love. All in just over 90 minutes.
A large part of the problem with “Anchorman” lies in its screenplay, co-written by McKay and Ferrell. Simply put, the film tries to do too much. It’s a spoof of local news teams, a period send-up, screwball romantic comedy and even has a touch of those old fashioned Disney live action animal adventures. Because the movie never concentrates its comic potential on one particular theme or style, it ends up being a scattershot bunch of scenes, many of which trail off with no apparent payoff. They often resemble a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that’s goes on too long. That’s not all that surprising when you remember that Ferrell starred on “SNL” and McKay wrote it for several years.
Ferrell has some amusing moments as Ron Burgundy. The character’s raging ego and inability to consider anyone’s feelings but his own make him an occasionally amusing target for laughs. Applegate seems a bit out of place as the straight arrow Veronica and is given little room to share in the laughs. Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Steve Carell-Brian, Champ and Brick also get a moment or two in the chips, but their scenes are also hit and miss. Perhaps the best part of the film are the cameo appearances by several Ferrell associates, including Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson and Tim Robbins as the leaders of rival news teams. Perhaps more time utilizing the tone and cleverness they bring to the movie would have made it work better.
As it is, “Anchorman” barely reaches the skill level of one episode’s worth of Ted Knight’s endearingly befuddled newsman Ted Baxter on the old “Mary Tyler Moore Show”. (By the way, if you do see the film, ignore Ferrell’s claims that he isn’t doing a riff on Knight-just pay attention to the name of Burgundy’s pet dog.) Certainly, there’s a great film to be made about local television news. Just as certainly, “Anchorman” isn’t it.

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