Review of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) by Roddersj04 — 10 May 2011

The funniest film I have ever seen. Period. But my reviews should be longer, so... Will Ferrell excels here as egotistical News Anchor Ron Burgundy, in fact, the entire cast acts above and beyond, excelling as brilliant characters.

But the breakout star of the film has to be the mentally challenged Brick Tamland, played by The Office's own Steve Carrell, delivering out a plentitude of hilarious lines ("I ate a big red candle", "Mm, I burnt my tongue", "Where'd you get those clothes, at the toilet store?") One of the most quotable films in movie history.

If you picked a random line from this film, you can guarantee it's quotable, from the statistical ("60% of the time, it works every time"), to the insulting ("You're a smelly pirate hooker", "Why don't you go back to your home on whore island"), to the informative ("San Diego, discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina") to the declarations of love ("I love Lamp") The film is rife with cameos, and not one of them feels out of place or like a cardboard cut-out.

Be it Ben Stiller as Arturo Mendez, Spanish Anchor, Jack Black as a motorcyclist who won't draw the line at kicking dogs off bridges, Tim Robbins as an anchor who'll cut off arms and then calmly smoke a pipe or Danny Trejo, a bartender who'll offer sage words of advice (even if it goes unheeded) This film is responsible for one of my favourite ever film moments: The big fight between the news stations, which manages to escelate from an exchange of words, to the characters pulling out weapons (knifes, table legs, hand grenades), then in less than half a minute, there's a man on fire, men on horses, Brick killing a guy with a Trident and Luke Wilson getting an arm cut off.

It sounds insane, but its one of those moments which must be seen to understand. If I could only recommend one film where you'd have a fun time laughing your ass off, it's Anchorman.