Anchorman Movie Review Director : Adam McKay Starring : Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Steven Carell

Inane without being offensive and sporadically funny in parts, Anchorman marks the beginning of the Will Ferrell moviemaking machine, which is to say, it feels like a marketable "product" as opposed to an actual "film." Ferrell, one of the most talented of the recent Saturday Night Live alumni, unfortunately seems to have fallen prey to the Mike Myers style of moviemaking: take a funny-for-about-ten-minutes one-note character and build a ninety minute movie around him, complete with overly detailed sets and jokes that overstay their welcome just a little bit too long. Fortunately for us, Ferrell's Ron Burgundy, 70s anchorman extraordinaire with a charming naivete surrounding his hedonism, is a much more enjoyable guy to be around than Myers' Austin Powers, and his spoof of 70s southern California is affectionate and sweet when it's not dead in the water (which, unfortunately, it is a fair amount of the time). Cross the broad humor of the Austin Powers flicks with the amiable parody of the Brady Bunch feature films and you'd wind up with something resembling Anchorman, which only resembles something of a movie itself.

While Elf, which never did live up to its true potential, felt at least like a wholly conceived film, Anchorman is a series of skits strung together that just happen to all feature the same characters. A wily parody of "action news" teams of the 70s introduces us to the major players who dominate the San Diego news scene: yee-haw sportscaster Champ Kind (David Koechner), dumb-as-a-post weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and reporter-about-town and aspiring Geraldo wannabe Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd). Their ringleader is none other than Ron Burgundy, who captivates the airwaves and rides waves of civic pride with his snazzy sign-off, "Stay classy, San Diego!" A happy go-lucky boys' club, the channel 4 news team is turned on its ear by the arrival of beautiful blonde reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) who's as ambitious as Ron is vacuous. Seen merely as a conquest and annoyance instead of a co-worker, Champ, Brick and Brian ask her out, i.e. all rudely proposition her in one of the film's most successful 70s send-ups of sexual harassment passing for flirting (Carell's mangling of the concept of a "party in my pants" and Applegate's dissection of it is fifteen seconds of pure riotous pleasure). However, it's Ron, despite bumbling attempts at inter-office suavity, who ultimately wins her heart with a steak dinner and an impromptu jazz flute solo. But when, in the giddiness of love, Ron blurts out the news of their secret affair on air, a workplace feud is born, fueled by Veronica's successful anchor appearance on the news when Ron's waylaid. Co-anchors and bitter rivals are born, and careers made, lost, and regained.

Ferrell certainly has Ron's characteristics down pat, from the cheesy moustache to the awful multi-colored underwear to the pompous inanity we all associate with local news anchors. But, just like Buddy in Elf, Ron comes off as a creation of Saturday morning television, a hedonistic hero designed for consumption by an 8 year-old. Not that you'd want Ron to be a sexy swinger, but almost emasculating him entirely takes a lot of the fun out of him and most of the sting out of his jokes. And despite Ferrell's best efforts, Ron comes off funnier in theory than in practice, which is too bad, as the trio of bozos he's assembled to hold court with him are hilarious in their small amounts. Carell especially does wonders with a simpleton character who comes off like a grown-up version of The Simpsons' Ralph Wiggum, and Rudd makes up for his recent, abysmal Friends guest stint by making Brian Fantana (kudos to whoever came up with that name!) the one fully fleshed-out character in the bunch. And Fred Willard, as the boss of the newsroom whose casual sexism and authoritarian demeanor rule the roost, again works his patented magic in a scene-stealing supporting role.

Despite all these guys, though, it's Applegate, who's one of only a handful of women given actual lines to read, who comes out on top, even if she is just channeling Jennifer Aniston in Rachel Green-career woman mode. (It's almost as if the filmmakers said, "Hey, if we can't get Aniston herself, let's get the woman who won an Emmy playing her sister on Friends instead!") Her Veronica is an affectionate but not mocking send-up of the quintessential 70s career gal, whose beautiful hair and tight dresses belied an intelligence that could take her all the way to the top. And when she's paired with Ferrell, the two have a natural chemistry that brings out each other's strengths and makes them share scenes together, not compete in them. Hurling insults at one another during post-show banter or taking part in a newsroom smackdown, they're a finely tuned comic team in a movie that piles on too many jokes – and cameos – in an attempt to be funny. (Vince Vaughn is great as a rival anchor, but when you add Luke Wilson and Tim Robbins and Ben Stiller as even more rivals, and put them in a West Side Story parody, well, that's just trying way too hard.) Like most local newscasts, Anchorman tries to cover too many bases, winds up not giving you enough info about any of them, and just makes you wonder what's on next.