Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

In a couple of my previous reviews, I stated that out of all comedy sub genres, I love the silly, even stupid if you might call it, crazy comedy that is usually put out by actors like Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and John C. Reilly. One of the kings of this type of comedy is none other than Will Ferrell himself. Dating back to his Saturday Night Live days, he has been one of the purest comedic actors in our generation. I would say between him and a couple other actors on the historic skit show, it was kept afloat as one of the best comedy shows in history. Some of my favorite films of his are Talladega Nights, Old School, and above all else Stepbrothers. This time around he brings us a story that takes place in 1970s San Diego, California about a news station. The KVWN-TV Channel 4 Evening News and their team of newscasters.


Ferrell plays our anchor-hero, Ron Burgundy, the leader of the Channel 4 Evening News team which consists of more hilarious misfits; Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), field reporter, Champ Kind (David Koechner) with sports and Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell) who handles the weather. They are the cities’ top news team and not only perform hard on the air but party hard off of it as well. They are rivaled by the KQHS Channel 9 Evening News Team led by Wes Mantooth (Vince Vaughn) who consistently remain at the number 2 spot while Ron and his team constantly remind them of that. At one of their parties, Ron meets Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), an aspiring female journalist who dreams of one day becoming an anchor. Upon her arrival at the news station, the quartet of news reporting playboys immediately compete for her romantic attention. Ron manages to coerce her into a date by claiming it will simply be a professional outing. He does this by randomly lifting weights with his shirt off in his office while trying to get her to notice his “guns”. During the evening, they grow close to each other and spend the night together awaking the next day claiming to be madly in love with each other.

Their office romance suddenly ends when Veronica fills in for Ron during a broadcast and proves that she is pretty good at it. They become co-anchors and go back and forth taking shots at one another with Veronica still trying to get Ron and the other guys to respect her as an equal while Ron is just simply trying to get her to quit. The remainder of the film has Ron trying to come to grips with the reality that he is no longer the number one anchor at his news station. He goes through a rather hilarious downward spiral which included growing a full beard during his drunken despair.

This movie ranks way up there on Ferrell’s film resume in my opinion. It is filled with constant laughs. From the ridiculous dialogue to the random side antics of its characters, if you like silly humor then you will not be disappointed. Cameos are made by other funny men such as Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Jack Black and Seth Rogen as well as Tim Robbins. There is even a fight scene between the Channel 4 news team and four other competing stations where many of them lose their limbs and their lives in an impromptu back alley brawl. Will Ferrell delivers another comedic winner which was rumored to have an upcoming sequel in the works but disagreements between cast and production companies may have ended any hope of that seeing the light of day.

Director and co-writer Adam McKay who has worked with Ferrell on many projects before also puts his comedic signature on this film. When he and Ferrell work together, they can probably be considered the Dynamic Duo of comedies. This film truly has everything we have come to know, love and expect from Will Ferrell. Be sure to see the uncut R rated version of this film out on DVD to receive the full impact of its crazy humor. I give Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy “4 Teleprompters that have been tampered with out of 5”.

“We need you. Hell, I need you. I'm a mess without you. I miss you so damn much. I miss being with you, I miss being near you. I miss your laugh. I miss your scent; I miss your musk. When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together.”