Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy takes place in the 1970's when men were men and anchormen were local stars, and they were most definitely not women. And as far as San Diego was concerned, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his crack Channel Four News Team were the best of the best. Every night was a sex-filled party and Burgundy couldn't go to a restaurant without being asked to play his jazz flute. Life was good, that is, until the station hired a newswoman (Christina Applegate). Ron's uber-macho demeanor quickly throws him off his game as he gets off on the wrong foot with the lady and can't help but make the worst possible comments to her. Eventually the two fall in love, but because of Ron's inability to accept her as an equal, he ends up going from the heights of fame into a bum-like slump as he gets removed from the anchor business.
Ron's team, of Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and Champ Kind (David Koechner), act as characters for Ron to play off of as they seem to be lesser versions, or parts of, Ron's own idealisms and personality. Each one has their own view on how to handle Veronica (Appliegate), but no one seems to really know exactly what has to be done. I have to say that while the four characters play well off of each other, Steve Carell's idiotic character (who has an IQ of 40) is the best and he just steals the spotlight every time he's on camera. Carell does a great job of putting out the most mundane and irrelevant comment that just makes me laugh every single time. He also does a great job of putting on a blank expression when he talks (and sings) that just fits his character perfectly.
The movie has a ton of cameos in it, especially in the big news-team brawl in the middle of the movie. Here, the Channel Four Team is surrounded by other teams led by Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson and Tim Robbins. That five minute sequence alone is worth seeing the film for, and once again, Carell is the best part with his grenade and trident.
Unfortunately, the HD DVD version of this release doesn't seem to offer anything, besides the improved visual and audio quality (which might be enough for some people) over the standard definition version. All of the special features seem to be the same, and there doesn't seem to be any change to the movie itself, so I can't see necessarily paying the extra money to get the high def version over the DVD one, again, unless you are the type that sees the higher resolution enough reason in itself. It's a fun movie, but only if you like Will Ferrell. Then again, like I said above, Steve Carell steals the show every time he's on camera, so it's worth watching at least once.
