Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Review by Jason Donner

It's the 1970's and in the days before cable, CNN, and Faux News the local anchorman was king. Will Farell plays the biggest king of them all, Ron Burgundy, the biggest and most famous San Diego anchorman ever in the aptly titled Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy the latest check-your-brain-at-the-door comedy.

Anchorman finds Ron Burgundy at the height of his career and, despite being the most well known face in San Diego,  is an empty headed egomaniac chauvinist who talks to his multilingual dog and who unknowingly reads anything written on the teleprompter... even turning statements into questions thanks to poorly placed question marks.

Burgundy and his friends - a collection of hip misfits - at the news station facing changing times as a female reporter played by Christina Applegate is hired on in what is generally considered to be an all-male profession.

You know... to heck with the plot because really, it doesn't matter. The plot is all over the place and so is this movie... it's kind of a controlled madness that should send Anchorman spiraling into the inescapable black hole of suck, yet it doesn't... the characters, the craziness, and the randomness of the movie somehow work together and the end result is incoherent... but damn funny.  The movie is barely controlled chaos and yet, it works for some reason scientists are unable to explain.

Anchorman is a great, goofy, and incredibly likeable movie. It's not deep and it doesn't have any intention of being deep... this is a movie that just goes for maximum laughs and spits in the face of logic and reason.

You also have to  love the characters in this movie... Burgundy, despite is glaring and numerous flaws is a pretty likeable guy as is Christina Applegate's character. The supporting cast from Steve Carrel to Kevin Corrigan and even the villains of the movie... competing anchormen from other stations - played by the likes of Vince Vaughn, Tim Robbins, and Ben Stiller are fun to watch.

This movie is a big fat collection of brainless funny. This is Will Farrell's movie and will no doubt go into the short column of his best features.