This is the deal: I own around 350 movies on DVD and Blu-ray (I’ll know for sure how many at the end of this project). Through June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.
Movie #17: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Confession: I can only take so much Will Ferrell. More often than not, in the movies of his I enjoy, it’s the supporting cast that wins me over, and that’s the case here. Whenever I feel Ferrell’s portrayal of Ron Burgundy teetering over the edge into unwatchable, Paul Rudd (as Brian Fantana), Steve Carell (as Brick Tamland) or, most of all, Christina Applegate (Veronica Corningstone) is there to reel me back in. Applegate, especially, is the star of this show as far as I’m concerned. Her haltingly proper, overenunciated delivery of every single line is contained enough to level out the manic antics of everyone else on the film while still being absolutely hilarious in its own right.
What else works? The news crew gang fight (Tim Robbins in a Mike Brady perm as the public news anchor is my favorite cameo here), the animated rainbow love scene, singing “Afternoon Delight,” Sex Panther, the Burgundy/Corningstone physical fight (“Knights of Columbus, that hurt!” is the only Burgundy outburst that really makes me laugh), post-sign-off insult exchanges, some little girl on the street telling Burgundy off, Fred Willard (as news director Ed Harken) on the telephone to various people about his character’s son’s escalating violence, and the running teleprompter gag. “Go fuck yourself, San Diego,” still makes me laugh my ass off.
What doesn’t work? Well, like I said, I can only take so much Will Ferrell, so a lot of his mugging bores me to tears. I can do without the shirtlessness, the Jazz flute, the screaming and crying jags, the Jack Black scene, and the entire relationship with his dog Baxter. I also don’t understand his intelligence level. One minute he’s correcting someone on his team for saying something ridiculous, the next minute he has no idea what words mean. I know it’s meant to be funny, and I’m sure a lot of people will tell me I’m uptight for not thinking it is, but it just strikes me as inconsistent and weird. Carell’s Tamland is never not stupid, and he’s consistently one of the funniest characters in the whole film. I think Burgundy could’ve been hilarious (and Anchorman as a whole just as much of a success) if Burgundy had simply been arrogant and sexist with a tin ear for tactful conversation without being a bumbling idiot. I know idiocy is kind of Ferrell’s schtick, though, so I guess we’re stuck with it.
On a whole, I do like the movie (as I mentioned, there are lots of really funny things about it), and there’s no denying it’s secured a place in pop culture history. The only real mistake surrounding it was the decision to make a sequel, not only because it sucked, but because the original ends with a perfect epilogue, letting the audience in on the futures of our featured players. The sequel completely undermined all of that, but luckily we don’t have to go into that here, because I don’t own it and never will.
With any luck, maybe in five or ten years no one will remember that anything but this one Anchorman movie ever existed.
Viable Option 