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Who'd have thought university would be so time-consuming!
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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy holds the honour of being probably the most quoted film of recent years. It stars Will Ferrell as TV newsreader Burgundy, and recreates the setting of 70s San Diego in one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen. It's directed by Adam McKay and co-written by McKay and Will Ferrell himself.
Ron Burgundy is the San Diego's most popular news anchorman, and possibly the city's most popular guy in his own right. With his sharp suits and immaculate hair and moustache, he's a kind of god for the people. Backed up by his team of Brian Fantana the reporter (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind the sports guy (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland the weather man (Steve Carell), he fronts the number one news show in the ratings.
When ambitious female reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) turns up at the male-dominated office, the whole team tries to impress her and ask her out on a date, but only Ron charms her into a - purely professional - evening out. At first she is given lame stories to cover (a hilarious cat fashion show), but she dreams of becoming a main newsreader. It soon becomes clear that she's a threat to the team's status and their masculinity, and something must be done to prevent her from getting the position of America's first ever
female co-anchor.
Anchorman is an evocative trip back to the 70s, complete with pastel-coloured polyester suits, big hairdos and pool parties. Even if you weren't around then, it really makes you feel a bit nostalgic.
The humour comes thick and fast, and it really is a laugh-out-loud film. The characters are all brilliant and strangely realistic, but it's the bizarre and surreal writing that really makes this stand out. The film starts off as a standard 70s pastiche with some nice one-liners, but by the end it's an all-out comedy which rivals any in terms of the jokes-to-laughs ratio - a very important factor.
The funniest character is not actually Burgundy, but in fact the scene stealing Steve Carell as Brick, the weather guy. People like him because he's "polite and rarely late", and he comes out with some of the funniest and most random lines, such as "I ate a big red candle", "I love lamp" and "Where'd you get those suits, the toilet store?". Carell is one of my favourite comic actors, and he's without doubt the best thing about this film.
The rest of the cast are great too - Will Ferrell is very funny, and really suits this role, surely because he wrote it for himself. He's a whole lot better in this than in the dreadful Bewitched (Steve Carell made a cameo in that, too) and shows that he's excellent at both acting and writing - definitely one of the best comic film stars around at the moment.
The other members of the news team are perfect in their smaller roles, and Christina Applegate as Veronica shows great comic touch and feistiness, although in some parts she's a bit over the top.
There are lots of funny little cameos, including in a brilliantly absurd battle sequence between members of San Diego's rival news teams. Vince Vaughn plays the anchor of the number 2 channel, Luke Wilson pops up as another, Ben Stiller is the newsreader for Spanish Language News, and even an almost-unrecognisable Tim Robbins turns up for the melee. This scene is another example of the bizarre comedy of Anchorman: the groups all have scary-looking weapons (including a trident and a hand grenade), there are random horses and a man on fire, and someone gets his arm chopped off. "Boy, that sure did escalate quickly".
The other noteworthy cameo comes from School of Rock's Jack Black as an angry biker, and his is possibly the funniest scene of the whole film, so watch out for it. Burgundy has a cute little dog, called Baxter, with whom he can talk (sometimes even in Spanish), and they sleep together in matching pyjamas.
By now you should have picked up the style of humour in Anchorman and decided if it's for you or not. The plot isn't that great, but it does at least make sense and it's really just there to provide opportunities for more jokes (the closing events are very funny indeed). It is a very funny film: it's packed with visual gags, surreal humour, some clever word-play, physical humour, and a fair bit of pastiche, and there really are a lot of laugh out loud moments and quotable lines - something for everyone, I think!
That's all from us for tonight. I'm Ron Burgundy? Stay classy, San Diego! _______________________________________
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy can be bought from www.choicesuk.com for £4.49, or of course you can buy it in any high street retailer that sells DVDs, it shouldn't be too expensive since it's been out a while.
Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring:
Will Ferrell … Ron Burgundy Christina Applegate … Veronica Corningstone Steve Carell … Brick Tamland Paul Rudd … Brian Fantana David Koechner … Champ Kind Vince Vaughn … Wes Mantooth Jack Black … Angry Biker Ben Stiller … Spanish Language News Anchor Luke Wilson … Frank Vitchard Tim Robbins … Public TV News Anchor
Running Time: 94 minutes
Classification: 12A (sexual humor, language and comic violence)
Year of Production: 2004
My Rating: 5 stars
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I did enjoy this film but you've hit the nail on the head with your disadvantages - a bit weird and silly for some'. Personally, there were times when it's too much but on the whole, a funny film and a great review! And I do LOVE the 'I love lamp' bit! We got many a good laugh out of that line! Amy
hukerjohn 05.04.2007 13:55
This film is absolute genius! We dressed up as the entire channel four news team for Halloween last year. I was brick and wore an awesome mustard suit. We even managed to find a teddy dog that was identical to Baxter! Never had so many photos taken of us in our lives. We even made it on tv! Brilliant!
post-it-note 16.03.2007 22:04
suprising how often the "toilet store" line comes in handy...!
Will Farrell followed up his star-making vehicleElf, which matched his fine-tuned comic ... more
obliviousness to a sweet sincerity, with a more arrogant variation on the same character: Ron Burgundy, a macho, narcissistic news anchor from the 1970s. Along with...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Will Farrell followed up his star-making vehicleElf, which matched his fine-tuned comic ... more
obliviousness to a sweet sincerity, with a more arrogant variation on the same character: Ron Burgundy, a macho, narcissistic news anchor from the 1970s. Along with...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: The best bit are the ned credits although you have to wait a long time for them Disadvantages: Poor story, awful acting, not funny, a total waste of time
yackers1 09.09.2009 ·
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Review of Anchorman (DVD)
Advantages: The best bit are the ned credits although you have to wait a long time for them Disadvantages: Poor story, awful acting, not funny, a total waste of time
yackers1 09.09.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Anchorman (DVD)
![Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78512654.jpg "Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy [DVD] [2004]")
Feb 22nd, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
