HD DVD REVIEW:
ANCHORMAN:
The Legend of
Ron Burgundy

12/01/07

“I don't know how to put
this but I'm kind of a big deal.” That just about sums up
Ron Burgundy, San Diego's top rated newsman, from the 70’s,
a time where newsmen were gods. Anchorman is a very funny
comedy in what can only be considered a superb directorial
debut by Saturday Night Live (SNL) writer Adam McKay.
However, this isn’t your straight, run of the mill comedy.
Its more like those weird SNL sketches which some people
either find incredibly funny or incredibly stupid.
In Anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is the legendary
newsman beloved by San Diego. Ron lives life like a famous
rock star. The rest of his news team is composed of
on-the-scene reports with Brian Fontana (Paul Rudd), weather
with Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and sports with Champ Kind
(David Koechner). The news business in the 70’s is a male
dominated industry and when Veronica Corningstone (Christina
Applegate) arrives she begins to shake things up a bit with
her desire to anchor the evening news. Veronica gets her
chance when Ron can’t make it on time because he gets into
an argument with a motorcyclist played by Jack Black after
Ron throws a burrito at him. Jack Black takes this revenge
and throws something beloved by Ron over the bridge in what
is probably the second funniest scene in the movie. The
funniest scene belongs to the street fight lead by the
anchors of the other local news’ Vince Vaughn, the public
televisions news’ Tim Ribbons, and the Spanish news’ Ben
Stiller.
The ratings increase after Veronica broadcast, and she is
offered the co-anchor chair right next to Ron. Soon after
this, the romance between Ron and Veronica draws to a chill
and both are looking on ways to make the other look bad on
live television. Veronica wins when she finds out the Ron
reads whatever is written on the teleprompter no matter was
it is. Ron is fired after he insults the entire city of San
Diego and turns to the bottle to deal with the pain. When
Veronica turns up missing for a live shot at the San Diego
zoo for the birth of a panda, Ron is called upon in an
attempt to revive his career and his love affair with
Veronica.
The performance by Will Ferrell and Steve Carell were
flawless. Although we’ve seen Ferrell do these type of
characters before. Carell’s retarded weatherman is hilarious
and he manages to delivers on just about every line.
Christina Applegate did a great job handling this corky sort
of comedy. Vince Vaughn (Wes Mantooth) also gives a
noteworthy performance however his role is very small. The
two funniest scenes as I mentioned early are those with Jack
Black confronting the burrito throwing Ron and the street
fight against the Spanish news, the Public television new
and other local new cast.
The picture in HD-DVD looks flawless. The color scheme is
impressive and the look of the movie is a real delight. The
audio while not the best is acceptable for this type of
movie. Overall this is a great HD-DVD translation and a
worthy upgrade to anyone who already owns the standard DVD
edition. The disk also has an overwhelming amount of feature
that will leave you laughing for hours after the movie is
over.
VIDEO:
Anamorphic
Widescreen (1.85:1)
AUDIO:
English:
Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
French: Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
Subtitles English/English SDH/French/Spanish/Portuguese
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio
commentary by with Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Lou Rawis, Andy
Richter, Kyle Gass, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Christina
Applegate
The
Making of Anchorman - The obligatory behind the
scenes features Will Ferrell, director Adam Mckay and the
rest of the cast discuss the movie. Audition tapes are show
with Will and Christina performing side by side.(9:28)
An
Conversation with Ron Burgundy - Television
journalist Bill Kurtis interviews Ron Burgundy as a real
life character. The interview is fairly funny. Bill Kurtis
does a good job playing this straight. (10:40)
"Afternoon Delight" Music Video - The cast of
Anchorman in the music video for Afternoon Delight. Somewhat
funny like a so-so sketch in SNL. (3:49)
ESPN
audition - Ron Burgundy interviews for ESPN. I don‘t
think he got the job. (1:54)
Bloopers - Supposedly funny outtakes and bloopers.
Some of them aren‘t funny at all.(7:45)
Commercial Break - More behind the scene with Paul
Rudd running around the set in his wonder wear. (2:03)
Ron
Burgundy's interviews at the MTV Movie Awards - Ron
Burgundy interviews Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. The interview
takes an awkward turn, but Ron end up bedding Rebecca in the
end. This one is outright hilarious. (3:36)
Ron
Burgundy Exclusive - Bill Kurtis interviews Ron
Burgundy, Veronica Corningstone and Brian Fantana about
their lives. Worth seeing fairly funny. (8:30)
Special Report - David Koechner’s is shown
improvising multiple times his squirrel incident scene.
Another very funny extra.(6:44)
Delete Scene - Twenty-nine deleted scenes are
included with the funniest being Ron‘s Destiny and
Veronica’s Past.
RATING BREAK DOWN:
FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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BONUS
FEATURES |
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Review
By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
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