Went to see Anchorman on the weekend, and I know many of you have been waiting for my opinion before you went yourselves to form your own opinions. So, here is my opinion:
Overall, I was generally disappointed. Yes, there were a lot of funny moments, but they didn't seem to go anywhere (kinda like Marx Brothers movies, I suppose, where the plot is merely the container for a bunch of skits and jokes).
I think what threw me off most was the pacing of the film. It seemed as if it had a TV sitcom feel to it at times, almost as if they were pacing the jokes to accomodate the laughter of an audience. It just seemed kind of off and a bit too loosey-goosey.
I am a huge fan of Will Farrell, and will laugh at almost anything he does. I found myself smiling quite a bit at him in this movie, but not as many laugh out loud moments as I would have liked. Too many of his attempts at humour were flat and/or desperate. Of course, there were a handful of moments from him that were hilarious, but they were balanced too much by moments that didn't go anywhere.
I laughed at pretty much anything Steve Carrell said as the dim-bulb weatherman, but I found the other two in the 4-man news-team rather lacking. Not bad, just lacking. Christine Applegate was good, but didn't really have much to do. Fred Willard, I think, was pretty much wasted in his role. He did a good enough job playing it pretty much straight, but the comedy he was given (or came up with by himself through improv?), regarding his son, was pretty inferior and forgettable.
So, in a nutshell: lots of smile-along moments. A few real big laugh out loud moments. Not enough moments in between. Perhaps it would work better for me if I saw it on television?
2 comments:
hey rob.
i want to add my 2 cents to your "anchorman" post. i went to the movie with low expectations (too many crappy snl-alumni flicks in my past), and i was pleasantly suprised. tho i don't laugh out loud at many movies, i laughed a lot at "anchorman".
I had the same reaction as Big Dave. I forced myself to have low expectations (because I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell and the trailers kind of scared me) and I thought the end product was pretty good. Horribly slow at first, but it built in steam. WHat I really look forward to is the DVD, because something tells me the outtakes and deleted scenes for this one, could be funnier than the film. Steve Carell was on fire.
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