In comedy, there is such a thing as good stupid. Dude, Where’s My Car? was certainly a stupid movie featuring stupid characters, but at least it made me laugh. It doesn’t take much to make me chuckle, but I think I laughed approximately five times during Anchorman, and two of those were during the outtakes in the credits, which are better than anything in the body of the movie. I thought the theater was empty since I didn’t hear any laughter during the film, so I was surprised to see at least 25 other silent viewers exiting as we did. I guess I wasn’t the only one who was not amused.

With a boring premise, an excruciatingly slow plot, and un-interesting characters, Anchorman’s only redeeming moments come from cameos and musical references. The sloppy script features painfully repetitive and sophomoric jokes. My 18-year-old brother, with whom I saw Anchorman, gave “disappointing” as his one-word review. I chose “horrible.”

I thought Anchorman would be a satire of an E! True Hollywood Story type of program, but all it does is vaguely make fun of the Burt Reynolds style of ladies’ man. But like Stepford Wives, the satire in Anchorman (if you can call it that) is stale. Making fun of hairy-chested, polyester suit-wearing misogynists with puffy hair and bushy mustaches isn’t exactly topical. And are we supposed to hope Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) will end up together? Burgundy is repulsive and pompous, and I wouldn’t wish his affections on my worst enemy.

With his catchphrase “stay classy,” Ron Burgundy is living large in 1970s San Diego. Even though he’s not very bright – he doesn’t know what the expression “when in Rome” means, and he thinks San Diego is German for whale’s vagina—he is a successful anchorman and has good luck with the ladies. One day, he meets Veronica Corningstone, an intelligent and spunky young reporter who speaks her mind and knocks him off his feet. Ron and his co-workers at the TV station, most of whom are even dumber than he is, all want to get into Veronica’s pants. A bunch of crude jokes ensue, some of which are tinged with homophobia, and most of which didn’t make me crack a smile. The Daily Show’s Steve Carell is funny for a while as imbecile weatherman Brick Tamland, but the script runs thin too soon.

In addition to the uninteresting love story/battle of the sexes, Anchorman features a bitter rivalry among Burgundy’s Channel Four news team and the reporters from San Diego’s other stations. Their West Side Story inspired street fight is one of the film’s bright spots, but it wasn’t as funny as it could have been. I don’t want to spoil the cameos for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, but this fight scene, along with one where Burgundy chucks a burrito out a car window provide the best surprise appearances and earned the biggest reactions from the crowd.

Fred Willard as station manager Ed Harken is excellent, as always, but Burgundy’s sidekicks Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), the womanizer, and Champ Kind (David Koechner), whose character can only be described as idiotic, are tedious and terminally unfunny. Fred Armisen has a silly face, so he was relatively humorous, but he doesn’t get to say any clever lines as Tito, the club owner. Will Ferrell, always a whirlwind of energy ready to humiliate himself, is fairly funny as Ron Burgundy, but it’s a weak performance by his standards. Applegate is charming and beautiful in a standard way.

While low-budget films can be excellent (i.e. The Good Girl), Anchorman feels like it was thrown together at the last minute by fusing together a few unfinished concepts. As a result, nothing really happens, and the pacing is so off that the 90-minute running time could have been cut in half.

Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson were a killer combination in Old School, but Anchorman tastes like two week-old keg beer. This fraternity deserves a demerit.


Recommended: No