Review(s): DVD Anchorman / Old School (Widescreen Edition)
Funny Funny Stuff
I saw this movie when it came out in the big screen and i thought is was really funny. The story of the movie is great and its have probably the best cast ever. Frank The Tank is the funniest man alive! Old School also rocks thats why i got the 2 pack with Anchorman and Old School, anyone who liked any of these movies should buy the pack.
A dose and a half of the wacky comedy of Will Ferrell
The common denominator of "Anchorman" and "Old School" is the presence of Will Ferrell and the grand irony is that the movie in which he is a supporting player is funnier than the movie in which he is a star. That makes "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," the less funnier of these two comedies. The script by director Adam McKay and star Will Ferrell sets up some comic opportunities but tends not to take advantage of them. For example, it is established early on that Burgundy will say anything that is written on a teleprompter. While this comes up as a major plot development, it strikes me as a waste of a really good running gag because they could have come up with so much more but they do not.
Ron Burgundy represents the news anchor in his prime, circa San Diego in the 1970s. Arrogant and narcissistic, not to mention incapable of saying anything that does not sound pompous and egotistical, Burgundy is enabled by his producer Ed Harken (Fred Willard), and the rest of the evening news team: hip roving reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), sports reporter Champ Kind (David Koechner), and clueless weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell, Bruce Almighty). Into their male dominated world comes Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), who wants to read the news her self, apparently unconcerned that it is a man's job.
Now, a battle of the sexes sounds pretty good, but that idea is undercut by the fact that a romance springs up between Burgundy and Corningstone. The fact that they have the hots for each other does not take away from their ambition, and the funniest scenes for me in the film are when the two of them are muttering insults each other at the end of the newscast while the credits role. But there should have been a lot more comedy to be milked from their on camera battles, and "Anchorman" is too busy running on to the next bit to stop and figure out how everything fits together. This is a film that has people singing "Afternoon Delight" at one moment and then has news teams getting ready to rumble in a back alley. But it never comes together with any sort of unified comedy theory that makes it all work.
The bottom line for me is that "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" should have been a satire, and it ends up being nothing more than an over-extended comedy sketch. The movie is set in the 1970s and you would think that should come into play more in terms of the comedy, but it really does not. The flaw, I suspect, is that McKay and Ferrell know that their SNL audience has little in the way of a rudimentary knowledge of that particular decade (to wit, leisure suits and facial hair), so the story is set back then simply so the idea of a female news anchor can be see as a radical idea. But even that become another font of comic opportunity that "Anchorman" neglects to use to great effect. Ferrell certainly tries hard, but the end result is simply okay.
"Old School" has its problems as well. First, a banana is not a vegetable. A vegetable is a usually herbaceous plant (such as the cabbage, bean, or potato), which is grown for an edible part that can be eaten as part of a meal. In contrast, a banana is an elongated usually tapering tropical fruit with soft pulpy flesh enclosed in a soft and usually yellow rind. Second, the myth of Romulus and Remus is a Roman legend and not a Greek story. Seduced by the god Mars, the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia bore twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Left to die in a basket on the river Tiber by her wicked uncle Amulius, the babes washed up on shore and were nursed by a she-wolf. Growing to manhood they discovered their true identities and eventually founded the city of Rome.
Now the point of these mini-lectures is that when a film like "Old School," which takes place across the street from a college campus, gets the facts wrong it certainly takes away from your enjoyment of the comedy. Maybe when Ferrell's Frank is streaking down the street he is doing that wrong as well. Maybe Vince Vaughn's Beanie does not give you the keys to Speaker City if he cannot beat a competitor's deal. Maybe Luke Wilson's Mitch does remember what happened when he woke up in bed with an under aged coed.
"Old School" is about the aforementioned trio of friends who are disenchanted with becoming adults in the real world and who end up turning the house Mitch is renting into a college fraternity so that he can stay there. That particular situation is contrived, to say the least, but then it ends up being pretty clear that the point of this film is to put three thirtysomething guys in situations that borrow from "Animal House" and pretty much every other party animal college film you have seen. The relationship between Mitch and Nicole (Ellen Pompeo) hits a couple of stereotypical snags and they end up getting resolved off screen.
The biggest offense of this film is that when it comes time for the frat boys to take on the evil, wicked, bad, mean, and nasty Dean Pritchard (Jeremy Piven), the film fails to come up with anything that is particularly memorable or especially funny. Instead of having a climax, this film just sort of peters out at the end. There are some big laughs, such as when we learn a new use for asphalt bricks, but the film is mostly Vaughn and Ferrell stealing scenes from Wilson, who really does not have a whole lot to do here. If you want a really good Ferrell comedy, then just go watch "Elf" again. Even with this pair of jokers, I have to round down.
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