Movie: Anchorman
 |
(Video)
Starring:Christina Applegate, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell
Manufacturer:Dreamworks Video
Released:28 December, 2004
Watched: 07/11/04 AMC Southdale 16 9:50pm
Score: 8 |
When I saw the previews for Anchorman, it was clear that this was the movie that would make Will Farrell shine. The movie seems tailor-made for his style of humor - I’m not sure if that means that he is after his time, or he was just not sure of where he should be until now. The movie delivers on it’s promise of humor, with a small bit of plot just for the fun of it. The laughs are minuite-by-minute, with a few surprises in store for comedy movie fans.
The premise: Ron Burgundy (Will Farrell) is the top news anchor in the LA area. This is supposed to be a time before the advent of CNN and cable, so he is of course a huge star. He was obviously hired because he can read off the prompter and look good. Will pulls off this role perfectly. He has a team of other reporters there mostly for slapstick and less quick-witted than he is. It’s clear that he isn’t doing much in the way of relationships, and he seems to be partying all night every night. Then along comes Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) and he falls in love. Of course this isn’t enough to fill a movie, so Veronica is also trying to become the first network anchor ever (enter woman’s rights thing in the middle of the 70’s) and also there are little rivalries with other stations.
Despite the weak plot and jokes which are very off-color, the movie is entertaining to watch, as long as you just turn off your brain. There are running gags for some, and a wealth of cameos in one sequence which are perfectly timed through the movie, although they get fairly heavy in a extraneous scene near the end. The movie moves along well and times the laughs well, giving the audience just enough time to forget about the earlier joke before starting the next one and not putting consecutive jokes too close to plot so as to drown it out.
Di pointed out that there were some scenes in the commercials for this movie that were not in the movie - the major one being one where a table is broken. I think that the movie plot got changed a little based on screening because I don’t know where the scene would fit into the movie. At any rate, this movie is great to go and turn your brain off to. I give it an 8