Terri Noble's Non-blog

Thoughts, such as they are, of a mild mannered transgendered artist.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

Anchored in stupidity.

Today my boss treated me and a couple dozen of my co-workers to see "Anchorman" at a local theatre. I knew going in that it would be pretty dumb, what with Will Ferrell being its star, but I was flummoxed by the unabashed, brain-anesthetizing idiocy of the film.
It purports to tell the tale of Ron Burgundy (Ferrell), a full-of-himself newsreader at a San Diego TV station in the mid-70s, and the arrival of the first female anchor (Kelly Bundy, er, Christina Applegate). Ron and his old-boy comrades are aghast at her presence and react like Spanky and Alfalfa when Darla threatened to invade the He Man Woman Haters' Club. (The Rascals, however, were funny.)
The overacting is of a caliber not seen on screen since the days predating D.W. Griffith. There are at least three scenes that are totally superfluous, such as the ridiculous streetfight among the various news crews, Ron's flute playing, and basically the whole subplot involving Ron's rival anchor. The scene where the biker dropkicks Ron's dog off a bridge was appalling rather than funny.
Among the few good points were Fred Willard as the news director, and the narration by Bill Kurtis.
The chemistry between Ferrell and Applegate is forced, unconvincing... it wants to be "Adam's Rib" or "His Girl Friday" but it isn't even close.
At least I'm glad I didn't pay to see this. (The last movie I saw in a theatre was "Road to Perdition," over two years ago.)
Pull up anchor and avoid this one.

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