Classy

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

(2004)

Peter Travers, in his roundup of this fall's movies for Rolling Stone, writes, "If you think 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy isn't funny, and I mean time-capsule funny, go screw yourself." Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say the film is unfunny--the surreal bits are mostly brilliant, and the rumble of the news teams is the best of the surreal--but time capsule? I guess I have to go screw myself. As is usually the case with comedies based on smart dumbness, this has way too many lulls of just dumb dumb.

And then there's that Applegate woman.  There are quite a few women born in the early '70s capable of great comic acting, but Applegate is not among them. Tina Fey is a year older; can you imagine how good this might have been with her in the role? OK, maybe the jokes about how sublime the character's ass are wouldn't have worked as well, but how big a loss would that have been? Or if you need those jokes, how about Cameron Diaz? Jenna Elfman? Amanda Peet? Applegate returns for the sequel, I see.