FILM REVIEW: ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY Dir: Adam McKay. Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Steve Carell , Kevin Corrigan , Chuck D , Paul Rudd. Too often it seems that US comedies follow trends. For far too long we had many spoof flicks forced upon us, followed swiftly by the reign of the gross out comedy. But those days are hopefully over, at least for the moment, and whilst we may be being a tad optimistic here, the time of the silly macho comedy seems upon us. Optimistic because so far not a mistake has been made, and this genre has produced three of the funniest comedies in a long, long time. First came Starsky and Hutch, then Dodgeball, and now Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy follows in their footsteps. All have featured a selection of macho male figures bonding in various oddball situations, but the joy of these movies has been their unpredictablity. The plot's may be a little by the numbers, admittedly, but all of the comedy moments have been joyously silly, with dialogue and situations never seen in more traditional fare. Anchorman is set in the Seventies and follows Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy, an overtly macho and idiotic news anchorman, who finds his life turned upside down when the Tv station hire a female reporter who has aspirations to become the first network anchorwoman. Love blossoms for a while, until she one day hosts the show when Ron fails to appear. He's unable to come to terms with it, and they become mortal enemies.
	Inexplicably the first ten minutes are largely weak, with only a few moments which will raise a smile, but then the film finds its feet and you'll find yourself laughing, and laughing hard, throughout the rest of the running time. Ferrell's surrounded himself with a strong supporting cast, most of whom are fairly unknown in the UK, and the laughs are shared out evenly. Like Dodgeball, The Simpson's irrelevant brand of humour is echoed here, it's warm hearted at times, but then extremely silly, and sometimes just plain odd (Ferrell's relationship with his dog is especially bizarre), but nearly always bloody funny. All of the characters grow on you throughout, and ultimately if it wasn't for the first few disappointing moments, it'd be near on perfect. After a bloody miserable summer, with the big budget efforts disappointing even more than usual, Anchorman's a breathe of fresh air, one which you'll want to suck in many many times. Alex Finch. Comments?
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