Sunday, July 1, 2012

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

I can't believe this movie is considered a comedy classic. I barely laughed and I have no hopes that the sequel will be anything but pathetic. While I would never say that a Judd Apatow movie would be on my Top Ten list of things to watch in the first place, I found this one less entertaining than most.

The only things that got a chuckle were:

1. The group's rendition of Afternoon Delight -- and that's only because I like the song and, while the writers thought it was funny, I actually found the harmonies quite pleasant.

2. Ferrell's phone booth melt down over the (apparent) death of his dog at Jack Black's hands.

3. The news team brawl, with Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn Ben Stiller and Tim Robbins heading the other networks.

4. The news team photo shoot where Ron's old colleagues refused to look in the same direction that Veronica did for the photo, to show their solidarity with him. A small, but wacky moment.

Other than that, I found the movie one big snooze. Coming the year after Old School, if I'd seen it when it was new, I probably would have expected to like it as much, given the similar cast and I would have been quite disappointed.

Maybe it's the fact that it's supposed to be a period film and the whole idea of laughing simply at the contrast between our generation and the one before it seems, well, outdated and that eliminated 50% of the film's so called comedy for me. Ron Burgundy's red jacket and Veronica's skirt suit (with vest) just don't provide humor in and of themselves. So, if they set it in the past just so we could titter because people still used typewriters back then -- it wasn't really that funny.

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