rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2004
Directed by Adam McKay; produced by Judd Apatow; written by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay
Starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell, Fred Willard, Luke Wilson, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Tom Robbins, Vince Vaughn
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
After 'Elf' and his short appearance in 'Starsky & Hutch' Will Ferrell stars
in another fine comedy with the nice name 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron
Burgundy'. Although it is not great it does a terrific job in creating a
character that must look familiar to a lot of people. Not that they all
think about the same person. Ron Burgundy as played by Will Ferrell is more
of the embodiment of an idea people have with some anchormen. The film is
set a couple of decades ago when it was still a strange thing to suddenly
hear a woman is joining your team.
So that is exactly what happens. A woman named Veronica Corningstone
(Christina Applegate) joins the team, that already exists out of Ron
Burgundy, Brian (Paul Rudd), Champ (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland,
played by Steve Carell. You might recall him as an anchorman in 'Bruce
Almighty' where he steals a lot of scenes from Jim Carrey. This time he
sometimes steals scenes from Ferrell. Although Veronica is very professional
she can't help falling for Ron, something the other members of the team do
not like. They think she is only after his job. One day Ron is late and
indeed Veronica does take over. Ratings go up and she becomes co-anchor. Ron
is not pleased and in some hilarious scenes we see how Veronica and Ron
fight their fights, resulting in Ron getting fired.
Enough about the plot. 'Anchorman' is not about its plot. It wants to be
funny and without trying too hard it is quite funny most of the time. It
finds the right note, especially because of Ferrell, to portray this
character. There are moments where the film goes over the top. In a scene
with a lot of cameos, you are probably thinking about the right names, the
film sort of pauses to introduce one star after another only to end in a
strange fight. The scene itself is over the top but is strangely likable
because of its star-power. In the end 'Anchorman' is comedy that does not
require much thinking, has a heart on the right place, and is funny. What
more could you want from a light-hearted comedy.