Fellman's Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

Anchorman is a 2004 comedy about news anchor Ron Burgandy and his news team. When a beautiful new woman starts working at the station, wanting to be a news anchor herself, she threatens the sexist, male-dominated news-world of the 1970s. The characters and the way everybody makes it really seem like the 70s is kind of impressive. I mean, I wasn’t there, but I’ve seen a lot of pictures. And I gotta tell you, they look pretty similar…  

What’s it about? Ron Burgandy, the local news anchor for KVWN Channel 4 in San Diego is the most famous man in the city. He gets everyone their news, every day. Everybody looks up to him. Everybody adores him. Then, a new woman starts at the station, Veronica Corningstone. Not only is she a strong, assertive woman, but she also wants to be an anchor at the station. Making the other guys on the news team feel threatened by her. After an accident involving Baxter, a biker, and a burrito, Ron is late reading the news and the station manager, Ed, is forced to put Veronica on to fill in for Ron. The network calls the next day and wants to make her Ron’s new co-anchor. After a few weeks of in-fighting between the news team, Veronica tricks Ron into reading a slur off the teleprompter and Ed is forced to fire Ron from the station, making Veronica the sole anchor. Later, Ling Wong, the Giant Panda at the San Diego Zoo is about to give birth, making it the story of the summer, and every news station is trying to get their news team over there. Veronica gets pushed into the bear pit by the public television news crew and Ed is forced to call Ron to cover the story, not knowing where she went. When Ron arrives, he discovers that she’s in the bear pit, and Ron and the news team jump into the bear pit to fight the bears and save Veronica.  

What’s good? It’s a classic comedy. A lot of quotable lines and memorable scenes. A lot of jokes that aren’t just funny the first time you hear them. The kind of movie that can be watched over and over again like a repeat of a television show. And even though you’ve heard the joke before, it’s funny enough to make you laugh. Not just funny because it’s new. So many comedies, once you watch them, they aren’t funny the second time around. Every once in a while, you find one that is. 

What’s bad? What’s not great is the effects in the movie. You can literally see Jack Black carrying the stuffed animal dog towards the side of the bridge in the one scene. I mean, I know they weren’t about to throw Baxter off the side of the bridge for real. But there had to be some sort of camera work that they could’ve done to not see that. And the effects in the bear fight are less than admirable. Not to mention the effects in the gang fight where Luke Wilson gets his arm cut off. And later in the movie where his other arm is ripped off by the bear. I’m pretty sure the arm effects were meant to be done poorly. I don’t know if the bear fight and the stuffed dog were… 

The actors? All the actors in this movie are A list, high priced actors. Christina Applegate has been acting since she was 13 or 14 years old on Married With Children.  

The effects? Like I was saying, the effects are not great. Whether it was on purpose or not is up for debate. It is a satire, so you can always say what was meant to look bad looked like that to make the scene “ironic”. Or maybe their special effects department wasn’t that good. You never know. It’s Hollywood. 

Will Ferrell has great range. Some people don’t like Will Ferrell. I don’t understand why. I think he has fantastic comedic range. He’s done everything from the voice of a monkey to a racecar driver, and everything in between. His character in this just adds to his ability to improvise as they show in all of the credits after the movie. 

Steve Carell is a brilliant actor. Steve Carell is also a great comedic actor. He has perfect timing and execution and his facial expressions are perfect for the characters he plays. Which, he often plays the role of somebody stupid. I don’t think he’s necessarily typecast, but he does seem to be in that role a lot. 

Paul Rudd was the perfect Brian. Paul Rudd was a great casting choice for Brian Fantana. He just fit that character. Like the way he corralled Brick when Ron called to him on the street. He kind of clapped like a dog and called Brick to him.  

David Koechner is a classic comedian. David Koechner is always funny. In everything I’ve seen him in. The characters he plays are somehow similar, but wildly different at the same time. It’s amazing how that’s possible. He’s just that good of an actor to be able to pull that off. 

Growing up with Christina Applegate. It’s weird seeing Christina Applegate as a grown woman, starring in a movie like this, since I started out watching her when she was a teenager on Married With Children, and I got to know her from there.  

Ed Harken’s son. The station manager, Ed’s son is apparently a deranged, drug-addled lunatic who purveys german pornography and shoots bows and arrows into crowds of people. 

Brick is retarded. They say they don’t have diversity at the news station, but Brick is literally mentally retarded, with an IQ of 48, and he still does the weather. I mean, talk about equal opportunity, right? 

Brian nicknamed his penis. He says “I know what you’re thinking. Do I have a nickname for my penis?” Does Brian assume that all guys have a nickname for their penises? Or is he just assuming that people think that HE has nicknamed HIS penis? 

Whammy. How often does Champ sprinkle “Whammy” into a conversation? If somebody has a catchphrase, how often do you think they just drop it into a sentence throughout the day? Every once in a while? Or is Champ just constantly walking around yelling “Whammy” every 15 to 20 seconds? 

Baxter. Baxter has his own pajamas and mouthguard? I can understand the pajamas, but what’s the mouthguard for? He’s a dog… 

Sexism in the 70s. This was a great script because of the reality of the way things were in media back in those days. Before cable, you had your local news channels and you knew what was on where. Because you had very limited options. Now, with literally everything at your fingertips at all times, it’s hard to even put content out anymore and expect people to see it. 

The few times Vince Vaughn isn’t playing Vince Vaughn. Vince Vaughn usually plays Vince Vaughn in movies. He’s the opposite of Will Ferrell. He’s a very limited actor with a very small range. There’s only one or two kinds of characters Vince Vaughn can do properly. You really can’t cast him as anything else. 

Brian’s cologne cabinet. It still ceases to amaze me. Where did he collect all those colognes from? That’s gotta be thousands of dollars worth of bottles of cologne. Because, cologne’s expensive. And I don’t know how much “Sex Panther” costs, but it couldn’t be cheap with a hydraulic box and everything… 

Ron reads anything. Where did Ron pick up the habit of reading anything that comes across the teleprompter, no matter what it says? It didn’t even register to him what he said until Ed showed him the video later.  

When in Rome. Ron never gets the meaning of the phrase “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. He uses it several times in the movie incorrectly and never figures out what it means. 

Jack Black punts Baxter. You can clearly see it’s a stuffed dog as Jack Black kicks it off the side of the bridge. I’m not saying they should kick Baxter off the bridge. That’s ridiculous. I’m just pointing out the effects in this movie weren’t great. On purpose or not. 

The Anchorman street fight. One of the great scenes of the movie, the anchorman street fight, is a reunion of several members of the so-called Frat-Pack. Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson, and Vince Vaughn 

Tino makes Ron eat cat poop. Tino makes Ron eat cat poop before he’ll get him something to eat for what he said about his city. This is a funny scene because they worked together on SNL and they knew each other really well from working there. That’s why they had good chemistry for the scenes they had together.  

Tim Robbins pushes Veronica into the bear pit. It just goes to show, you can’t trust public television. With all their donations and pledge drives. Next thing you know, they’re shoving you in a bear pit… 

The special effects in the bear fight. The effects in the bear fight are ridiculous. I don’t know if they’re supposed to be that bad, or I don’t know if they’re supposed to be better, and that’s what they ended up with. It looks like it could be either an “ironic-bad” or a “bad but tried-your-best”. It’s hard to tell. 

So, yeah. Go and see Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy. It really is one of the comedies on the list of classics you should see. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…