Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy

He's Kind of A Big Deal

Director: Adam Mckay
Release Date: 2004
Rating: 15
Running Time: 94 mins
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell

'Everyone! I have just been given and urgent news story, and I want you all to stop what you are doing and listen.....Cannonball!!' 

Will Ferrell is Ron Burgundy, lead anchorman of the channel 4 news team alongside Champ Kind - Sports (David Koechner), Brick Tamland - Weather (Steve Carell) and their man in the field Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd). All is well during the 70's in San Diego, everyone loves Ron Burgundy and the ratings for channel 4 news have never been better, until one day keen news journalist Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) appears at channel 4 and consequently causing quite a stir for Ron and the team.

This semi-improvised comedy is so brilliantly fresh and inventive even nearly 10 years on. For me this is arguably Will Ferrell's greatest role to date, as Ron Burgundy is still able to shock and entertain me after so long. The film is so brilliantly able to capture the mood of the 70's in terms of costumes and attitudes, tackling the big issue of sexism that would've been present and is able to put a rather comical spin on the problems. One of the best things about this film is the way that most of the lines are made up on the spot prompting such lines as, 'Why don't you go back to your home on whore island,' and 'you're a smelly pirate hooker' to name a few. The sheer obscurity of what goes on in this film and the lines that are said will make for a truly memorable experience watching this film and it will be hard to stop yourself from laughing basically the whole way through.

The film features multiple cameos from a number of comedy actors like, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Luke Wilson, Seth Rogen and a few others audiences may known, one particular scene influencing a Battle Royale between rival news teams featuring a handful of famous actors. It can be said that arguably this was the film that launched Judd Apatow's career to where he is now and sparking his first film with comedy actors such as Steve Carell and Seth Rogen that lead on to other hilarious and ingenius works such as 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' and 'Knocked Up', just to name a few.

'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' will have you wincing, laughing, crying, angry, perplexed but mainly just highly entertained in this weird and wonderful tale of friendship, pride, love and loss, a real revolutionary film that's left us almost 10 years to wait for the sequel. 

'You stay classy San Diego'

9/10