Release Date: July 9, 2004
Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Vince Vaughn
Directed by: Adam McKay
Written by: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay
Distributed by: DreamWorks
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (sexual humor, language, comic violence)
Anchorman is almost entirely a product of Will Ferrell, the red-hot comedic actor who has made it big acting like a fool (Old School) and even a child (Elf). In this instance his energetic and shameless humor is truly the only thing driving the movie -- everything else rests idle and lifeless. The movie is a gag about 1970’s society and the male chauvinism that existed then, and even with Ferrell sporting a big mustache, cheesy hair, and bad suits, the laughs are rare. There’s hardly a point -- nothing substantial is offered about political incorrectness or even the 70’s -- and the jokes are too over-the-top, tasteless, or just plain dumb to be funny. This is much more of a disappointment than it is a fun parody.
Ferrell is Ron Burgundy, the hottest TV news anchor in San Diego. He is joined by his fellow broadcasters: an overexcited sportsman (David Koechner), a suave field reporter (Paul Rudd), and a feebleminded weatherman with an IQ of 48 (Steve Carell). Together they pride themselves as the city’s No. 1 choice for evening news and it seems as though nothing can stop them, be it a tough guy competitor (Vince Vaughn) or the new correspondent (Christina Applegate) recently hired to the station. The men are your typical 70’s bachelors: they’ll do anything they can to have casual sex, free of serious relationships, and it’s their carefree lifestyles, especially Ferrell’s, that provide for a decent set-up to the story.
But the movie actually goes nowhere. After the first 15 minutes or so, Anchorman feeds solely on sight gags, random set-ups, and classic rock songs -- none of which are all that enticing, except for maybe a few of the music selections.
Ferrell and co-writer and director Adam McKay must not have had a very good idea of where to take the plot after establishing things in the opening. Christina Applegate’s character starts off strong, for example, but she soon ends up becoming a victim of the careless writing. She’s a woman who seems as though she won’t give in to the gimmicks of her chauvinistic coworkers, but she eventually falls for Ferrell, a man who is hardly different -- if not a touch dumber -- than the rest of the pigheaded men in the story. At one point, she’s talking to herself about how cute he is, which may explain her motives, but then that seems out of character. When, exactly, did she go from being an active feminist to a shallow lover? Either way, it’s hard to like her.
She never really effects a change in Ferrell, either, and there’s no struggle for him as he woos her. The conflict in the story develops after the two have become lovers; it’s then that they are constantly at each other’s throats, competing to be the better news anchor. Meanwhile, Ferrell’s character gets into a rivalry with the anchors from the other network affiliates, a plot device basically designed to give the likes of Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Tim Robbins the chance to make cameo appearances.
Both issues are completely silly. We aren’t rooting for Ferrell and his gang to defeat the other anchormen, and we aren’t interested in whether he and Applegate settle their differences, because Anchorman’s sense of humor is almost as random and dull as its story. Take, for example, moments like the animated sequence called “Pleasure Town” that appears while the lead characters are having sex -- but other than that, it has nothing to do with anything. Also, scenes involving a motorcycle accident, a gratuitously violent fight, and a bear den at the local zoo have more of a sloppy and improvised feeling than the carefully written and delightfully zany flavor we’d expect from an undeniably funny man like Ferrell.
Any of the movie’s occasional funny moments are due strictly to Ferrell’s charisma, not the writing that sets the jokes up, and there’s not nearly enough of the loveable dullard we saw him play in Old School and Elf to cover for Anchorman’s flaws. Let it be a lesson to the actor-writer, then, that he should stick to acting and leave the writing to someone else -- because there’s something unjust about deadening the personality of a comedian who isn’t afraid to humiliate himself.
-- Andy Zientek (zfilm@earthlink.net)