R Rating Ep25 - Anchorman (2004)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Anchorman the Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004. Living his best life in the stylish 70s, Ron Burgundy is the top rated news anchor in San Diego. But soon his livelihood is threatened by an up and coming talent, leaving him with two options. Lean into the new world order or melt down into a pathetic, bitter, jealous, screaming, crying, snot nosed man child. Back to you, Dan Burgundy. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Thank you very much, Will Burgundy. Our top story this week, Anchorman. Does it live up to the hype or is it overplayed? I don't have a follow up. That was like, are we doing voices the whole time? [00:00:44] Speaker C: Is it overplayed? [00:00:47] Speaker A: Overplayed, Burgundy. [00:00:51] Speaker B: All right, so anchorman came out 21 years ago. It was a huge cultural hobbit when it came out. Nobody could stop quoting it. [00:01:00] Speaker A: I'm in a glass case of emotion. [00:01:03] Speaker B: And yet somehow, Will, you managed to completely avoid all of that. And you watched it for the first time this week. It's actually. [00:01:10] Speaker C: I'm not even mad. That's amazing. [00:01:12] Speaker B: So I am super curious to get your take on it because I know having watched it back in 24,004 and watching it 20, 25, it is a very different movie. But for you, seeing it for the very first time, what is your thoughts on this one? Don't go super in depth. But just like, how did you enjoy this? Or did you enjoy it at all? [00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, there's a reason I sometimes miss movies altogether when something to me looks so. [00:01:38] Speaker C: So. [00:01:38] Speaker A: And then everybody just goes hog wild over it. I am very trepidatious to dip my toe into that water. And so I chose not to watch this movie. And I suffered listening to everybody quote it for years and years and years, and it finally died down and I thought I was in the clear. And then this show came along and ruined my life. [00:02:02] Speaker B: And then our rating happened, [00:02:06] Speaker A: so I watched it. That happened for the show. I watched it for the show and it solidified a lot of what I thought I was going to watch if I had watched it 20 odd years ago. You know, sometimes you just know if a movie's not your taste or not your style. That said, there was some interesting things in this movie that I didn't expect. So I'm interested and excited to talk to you about it. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Fair enough. Now, Brian, I'm assuming you were like myself. You probably watched this when it came out fresh back, probably late college age for you, and then seen it more recently than that. Did this hold up at all? [00:02:51] Speaker C: I used to drink and do a lot of drugs. I saw this movie, and it was pretty good. That escalated quickly, and I'm now clean and sober and a little bit rougher to get through this time around. I gotta tell you, I think this is maybe designed for a different generation, or at least a much younger version of my generation, probably. [00:03:12] Speaker B: I think that's fair to say. I. I did not do a ton of drugs or alcohol back in the day. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Super duper. [00:03:18] Speaker C: That's nice. Way to go. Neat. Okay. Yes. [00:03:22] Speaker B: But I do remember enjoying this one a lot more, probably when it was more in the cultural zeitgeist, back in the day when everybody was quoting it and you could just literally go to parties and spend half an hour just quoting Anchorman back and forth at each other. [00:03:35] Speaker C: Milk was a bad choice. [00:03:38] Speaker B: I found myself not hating it this time through, but I did watch it. I mentioned to you guys, I have. We just got a new puppy. I am super tired. I watched this by myself, mildly in a bad mood and overtired. It's like, none of those are the right ways to watch a comedy. But nonetheless, I don't feel like there was a great way to watch this one in 2025. Like, it. It just. It feels like it's from a bygone era. Comedic. Less like. I just don't feel like that is the kind of comedic movies we make anymore. [00:04:08] Speaker C: Well, and herein lies the problem, right? We've been doing science fiction action movies again and again and again, and most franchises kind of COVID that genre of science fiction or action or a combination of the two. That's kind of the bulk of franchises out there. And so when you jump to a comedy, it's a whole different feel for us in general. And there's the fact that comedy can very much be dated. A comedy that comes out today wouldn't get the same laughs 10, 15 years ago because it usually relies on a lot of current events and a different mindset. For the time, this movie was constantly making fun of a feminist movement or sort of. I think maybe they were trying to point out a feminist movement. It almost came off as insulting at times. And then I think maybe that was kind of the joke. I'm not really sure. There was actually one point in the movie where they literally, like, lay out the character arc and the whole, hey, times are changing, and you're just going to have to get used to it. And Ron Burgundy, or. Yeah, Ron Bur. Excuse me. He looks at the guy and he's like, I'm sorry, what? I wasn't listening to you. You know, times are changing, ladies can [00:05:28] Speaker B: do stuff now and you're gonna have [00:05:30] Speaker C: to learn how to deal with that. What? Were you saying something? Look, I don't speak Spanish and so I'm not really sure if that's as funny as it used to be. [00:05:44] Speaker B: I will. [00:05:45] Speaker A: I agree, I agree. The problem for me watching this movie in 2025, in 2004 when it came out, it's like, oh yeah, the 70s, women had so few rights and you know, women in the workplace is. And we've come so far, what in the hell's diversity? And now in 2025, watching this for the first time, I'm like, wait, have we gone so far? Are we headed back that direction? So it's not as funny when it's not a satire anymore. It was a satire, a parody of a time when women were breaking into the workforce and the women's movement was in full force. And now I just feel like we're losing ground on that somehow in 2025. And it really makes me not want to laugh at some of these coarse jokes and that are like so over the top and obviously meant as a satire. But when the world isn't aligned in the same way, it just hits different. [00:06:48] Speaker B: That's very well put. I agree with that sentiment. It just doesn't, it doesn't feel like we as a society are in the same place. And so the jokes don't land in quite the same way. [00:06:59] Speaker A: You sound like a game. [00:07:01] Speaker B: But also just from a movie making perspective, there was a lot of movies in this early 2000s where it felt like the entire cast was making up everything they said as they went along and it was just ad libbed. And whoever can make the funniest ad lib joke at the time, that's what gets put into the script, you know what I mean? Like, there was no overarching thought to a lot of the points. It was just. Who can say the silliest thing in this exact moment? That's what's going to go with. [00:07:29] Speaker C: We did have a rash of movies come out from the 90s into the 2000s where this style happened a lot. They did a lot of just free flowing comedy. They let people just off the chain. And Will Ferrell was one of the more successful ones in that kind of genre. This was kind of a big, not a debut movie for him. He had other stuff before this and he was a well known actor, but this is the one where they really let him do whatever he wanted to do. And he ran wild with this character and everyone around him kind of followed Suit. I'm kind of a big deal. I'm very important. I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of real rich mahogany. And they. They just kind of made this. I mean, it had a script and everything, but every scene, they just let them go and just never stopped recording until people finally broke character. And so there's a lot of just kind of nonsensical jargon going back and forth. And for me, that used to be funny. It isn't so much. It kind of seems a bit. It just kind of seems a bit dumb to me. And Will Ferrell's character, especially Will Ferrell, just kind of leans into it so hard that it's like, this is this. [00:08:45] Speaker B: It's. [00:08:46] Speaker C: It's just Will Ferrell being dumb again. There were some characters that were able to kind of like, actually make me believe. And they were the funnier characters that had a few moments that really came alive, honestly, believe it or not. Steve Carell as Brick Tamlin. Oh, yeah, I ate a big red candle. He just landed his lines so perfectly. He played that morons so perfectly that he had me chuckling quite a bit. The other one. Who was the other one? It was. Oh, I can't remember his name. [00:09:23] Speaker A: I hate you, Rob Burgundy. [00:09:25] Speaker B: I hate you. [00:09:27] Speaker C: He was the number two reporter from the other team. [00:09:29] Speaker A: Oh, Vince Vaughn. [00:09:31] Speaker C: Vince Vaughn. Thank you. Yeah. Vince Vaughn had a character that seemed somewhat believable and almost realistic and kind of helped me to come back into it. The rest of it, they were just so ridiculously stupid. It was just a showcase of how dumb can we get with our dialogue and our banter. [00:09:51] Speaker B: Yeah. There was a long time where I felt like this was the. The one comedy of Will Ferrell's that I kind of redeemed him for me. I'm not a big Will Ferrell fan. I do like some of his dramatic roles, but this was the comedy that I was like, no, he's actually pretty funny in this one. And then rewatching this one, I was like, oh, he's actually my least favorite part of this movie. [00:10:08] Speaker C: Like, yeah, unfortunately, he was. [00:10:10] Speaker B: Than he was, I thought. You're absolutely right. Steve Carell was hilarious in this movie. The. The. Do you want to go to the pants party? And then he just asked, like, the next person over, like, oh, I got rejected. Do you want to go to the pants party? Like, and then he just runs off like that act. I knew that was coming. I remembered that, and it split. Still made me chuckle. [00:10:27] Speaker C: I would like to extend to you an invitation to the pants Party. [00:10:32] Speaker B: Excuse me? [00:10:34] Speaker C: The party. The pants with the pants. Party with pants. Brick, are you saying that there's a party in your pants and that I'm invited? That's it. [00:10:46] Speaker B: Did Brian tell you to say this, Brick? [00:10:48] Speaker C: Yes, he did. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Okay. No, I don't want to go to a party in your pants. [00:10:55] Speaker C: Very well. Ian, would you like to go to a party in my pants? [00:10:58] Speaker B: No, Brick. All right, let's go. And then, honestly, the. The other part that I found really funny, as dumb as this sounds, and this sounds like one of those, like, oh, my favorite part of the movie is the credits. But, like, the end credits with the outtakes where they actually are breaking. I found that significantly funnier than half the scenes that were in the movie, like, the ones that actually stuck in. Obviously, you can't, because that's real. That. [00:11:20] Speaker C: That's. That's real, and you can relate to that. Yeah, but Ron Burgundy is such an unrealistic moron that you can't really relate to him. I believe Brick Tamlin had brain damage function at the right level. Right. But Ron Burgundy was just this overblown character that just. You can't be that dumb and function normally in life. It was on top of that, Be [00:11:47] Speaker A: that dumb, function that well and be beloved by everyone. That's the kicker, right? He's not a likable character in this movie, but everybody ends up falling for him, including his co anchor, who's closet in love with him. Champ. The champ. And the. The one strong female lead who just, like, instantly falls in love with him. You're like, what? This is such poor, lazy writing. Like, why do you just. [00:12:16] Speaker C: Because he played the flute into these. [00:12:17] Speaker B: True. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah, you just fall back into these tropes when you're, like, presenting women being able to do their own thing and make their own way, then you immediately just backtrack into her falling in love with him. [00:12:33] Speaker C: And you know what? I like Christina Applegate, but she. She didn't. Her character wasn't well written enough for these. It was. It was really a lame character for her to play. [00:12:42] Speaker B: I actually didn't mind Christina Applegate in this one, other than instantly falling in love with. With Will Ferrell and instantly forgiving him. But there was a couple of other scenes in this, which I actually did like her performance quite a bit, including, as silly as it was, the scene where she, like, takes over the teleprompter and, like, makes him swear. Now, I will. I will preface. I've seen the R rated version many a times. I just put on the Netflix Version. I didn't even realize it wasn't the censored version. So some of the jokes are a little bit different, but overall, it's the same movie. When she puts on that and he says, like, go F yourself, San Diego. [00:13:14] Speaker C: And I'm Ron Burgundy. Go yourself, San Diego. [00:13:20] Speaker B: The look on her face where she's just like, oh, crap, he actually did it. And, like, she actually, like, instantly. Oh, no, absolutely. That's what I'm saying. Like, everybody is. Is vamping so hard. It feels like she actually had a script and she did a very good job with it. So, again, you're right. I don't love that. She just instantly fell in love with him twice. That felt unearned. But I didn't hate her character in this movie. [00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah, for me, comedy, again, let's be honest, comedy is very subjective. Everybody has their own likes and dislikes when it comes to comedy. Not everything's going to hit for everybody, [00:13:56] Speaker C: even for individuals, changes and evolves. [00:13:57] Speaker A: It true. There are some movies, I feel, and there is some comedy that is universal. You know, first thing that comes to mind is, is people will always laugh at people getting hurt. It just is a thing that we laugh at. And it's been, you know, idiocracy has [00:14:14] Speaker C: a great spin on that. [00:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah. It continues to be, you know, successful. [00:14:19] Speaker B: Groin by football forever, Right? [00:14:21] Speaker A: Forever. And it forever will be. That said, I feel this movie is. What it's missing is the straight man character. There's really no straight man character in this. The closest thing to it is Applegate. Right. [00:14:36] Speaker B: Like the. [00:14:37] Speaker A: She's the only one, but she so, so quickly goes down the rabbit hole of just bickering and fighting and throwing a typewriter and, like, it just. She loses it so fast that I felt lost in this absurd comedy. And that's what they're going for. They want to make it look absurd so that they can get away with all the ridiculous over the top jokes that they're making. But it doesn't make for a strong structure to hold onto and let everything build on. [00:15:11] Speaker C: She really wasn't a great character for that point. I mean, honestly, like the Ed Harkin character by Fred Williams or Willard. Excuse me. He played the grounded, sensible person, even though he had this dry sarcasm, like, with his son doing all the stupid things on the phone all the time, which was kind of a funny little gag that they had going there too. I have no idea where he would have gotten hold of German pornography, but he was like the grounded one, and he didn't play a role in the movie for much. And so for her to be in there and to try to accomplish those goals, but be such a faltered character that, you know, turns around on herself all the time, it was. Yeah, it just didn't work. [00:15:54] Speaker B: Now, out of curiosity, you talk about it being a comedy and not really building on itself properly. I feel like a lot of. Not all, obviously, but a lot of great comedies don't necessarily have to have a huge through line or like characters developing as long as they are funny. I'm picturing and admitted I haven't seen this movie all that recently, so maybe I'm wrong on this, but I'm pushing something like Airplane. There's no true story. Nobody's really got an arc. It is just silly slapstick joke after joke. We have clearance, Clarence. [00:16:26] Speaker A: Roger. [00:16:26] Speaker C: Roger. [00:16:26] Speaker B: What's our vector? Victor and I watched it for the first time maybe seven years ago, so well after when it came out, and I remember laughing quite a bit to it. You could say the same thing about some Monty Python movies. Now, I know, Brian, you're not a big Monty Python fan, but generally. Oh, really? I thought we talked about Holy Grail and you were not a fan. [00:16:46] Speaker C: I mean, I have my favorites and everything. And it's not like my favorite, like the whole series is my favorite comedy by any means. But yeah, I enjoyed those. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Okay, my apologies. And I thought. [00:16:55] Speaker C: But I wanted to say something about. You mentioned, like, Airplane and other older comedies. Remember, bell bottoms have come back into style two or three times since they came out. And I think comedy can also do that. Every once in a while it'll come back into fashion, that style. And I mean, look at us. Right? Like, obviously, absolutely. To very never easier style. Guys. [00:17:16] Speaker A: We are sexy. [00:17:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Naked Gun movies, they followed in the suit of Airplane. [00:17:22] Speaker A: Yeah. But I still believe, like in Naked Gun, the lead is ridiculous, but there's still straight man characters in those movies to let the audience know that this is grounded in some way. I just felt Anchorman is not grounded in any way. [00:17:40] Speaker B: No, that's. [00:17:41] Speaker C: And. [00:17:41] Speaker A: And that's a big swing. And I feel like Will Ferro does that a lot in a lot of his movies is that forget the ground. We're just going for the fences of how far can we take it? [00:17:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:52] Speaker A: And for me, it just doesn't. It doesn't give the movie any weight or any substance. [00:17:59] Speaker C: Like, there's few people for you to latch onto as a viewer to. Yeah, yeah. To go through it with and see their perspective of these crazy people. Everybody in the movie is crazy. And absurd even. Like, in the beginning, there's women, like, falling all over Will Ferrell, and you're like, you're not a normal person. This guy walking around in his underwear with his crooked ass teeth and his really hairy chest. No woman's going for this guy. Like, this doesn't make any sense. You know, there's no one in the movie for us to relate to. [00:18:32] Speaker B: I don't. [00:18:34] Speaker C: You just 70s, man. That was before my time. [00:18:37] Speaker A: You were Will Pharaoh in his underwear. [00:18:39] Speaker B: I get it. No, no, no. I was gonna say, like, I don't think Mick Jagger is an attractive man, but back in the day, he got a lot. [00:18:48] Speaker A: And it's like, he probably still does. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Would he? Would he? Sure. [00:18:51] Speaker A: But would he? [00:18:51] Speaker B: If he was a 2020 pop star? [00:18:54] Speaker C: All this rock stars back from the 80s and 90s, man, they were pulling lots of bumper. It was crazy. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Who Ron Burgundy is supposed to be. He's supposed to be essentially a rock star from the 70s. So the fact that he doesn't have perfect teeth or the great body kind of doesn't matter. [00:19:10] Speaker A: I mean, also, like, likewise, Elon Musk has, like, 14 kids. Right. Like, how does that happen? [00:19:15] Speaker C: Well, to go with the 14 zeros in his bank account. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Exactly. There's other reasons, aside from just looks that people are going to go for you now. [00:19:25] Speaker B: Well, I do have a question for you, because when we first started talking about action movies, the first one we did was Mad Max. And I was like, there's not a whole lot of story here. And you're like, well, how much story are you looking for in an action movie? [00:19:34] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:34] Speaker B: I have to ask, how much story are you looking for in a comedy? [00:19:38] Speaker A: I'm not looking for a lot of story, but a little bit more than we got here. The part of the problem with this one is because they're improvising everything and going off the cuff with a lot of their lines. This story kind of the plot relies on Burgundy reading the prompter to the note, to the line, to the letter. And with him improvising throughout, and you can tell he's improvising throughout his. His broadcast, there's no way that he would not see what was coming and not read that fu San Diego. It just doesn't add up. And I believe if you go back in the film, you can actually see what's on the teleprompter, and it is different than what he had said on the broadcast. [00:20:25] Speaker C: Great story. Compelling and rich. Well, that's gonna do it for all of us here at channel4.news. You stay classy, San Diego. I'm Ron Burgundy. [00:20:37] Speaker A: So it's like a really flimsy plot line that because of the way they made the movie, which is fun. I enjoy improv and I enjoy the process. It just actually was a counterproductive element to that plot, which was kind of weird to me. [00:20:52] Speaker C: I think watching the making of this movie would be funner than. Than the movie itself. They did look like they were having a lot of fun making these scenes. And, and like, like, Dan, you're saying the outtakes at the end were funny, and when they're, when they're breaking character and having a good time, I, I think that would have been pretty entertaining. I. I enjoyed the fight scene in the. In the. The back alley fight scene where it was just beyond ridiculous how it kept escalating and they even make the joke. Wow, that escalated quickly. It was fun. And it was just. They just let go and did some crazy stuff. And I. I mean, this movie has tons and tons of moments. Chat. I've lost count of how many quotes Chad has been putting up trying to get me to break character while we do this recording. And there's some good, funny stuff in there, but I needed characters of more substance to help me as a grown adult to get through it. I needed a lens of normality to see through through or have someone else see through so I can go, okay, I'm not the only one who thinks everyone in this movie is acting super dumb. [00:22:04] Speaker B: That's totally fair. Now, I have to ask. We're not there yet, and obviously this won't apply to Will. But, Brian, for you, did the nostalgia factor play any part in your score for this movie, or are you blazing it entirely on what you saw? This. [00:22:17] Speaker C: It wasn't nostalgic for me at all. These lines are still being used today. Not nearly as much as when it came out. But yeah, this. This movie didn't bring back amazing memories for me. I don't remember when I first saw it. It was just a thing that everyone talked about and saw when it came out. And I don't remember if I saw Anchorman 2 or not still to this day. [00:22:41] Speaker B: Oh, I thought you ended the movie. [00:22:42] Speaker C: And I'm like, how is there a sequel? They moved on to the world News and showed where everybody went and what they did. How's there a sequel? [00:22:49] Speaker B: So I'm find out next week. [00:22:50] Speaker C: I guess I haven't seen the second movie, but. But no, there's no nostalgia for me. It's going to be rated purely on this Event. I will say it started out really rough, and as the movie progressed and we were introduced to more characters and more variety and a few different styles of jokes and things that were happening and getting to see some other people in action and after my brain kind of went, okay, I don't need to operate up here. I can operate down here and be just fine, I started kind of chuckling to the movie and having a good time with it and. And kind of remembering, oh, yeah, that's right. There was. There was that part where. Where Brick throws the. The. The trident and stuff. You know, they made a couple jokes about. And. And. And. And I had some fun. So. So it wasn't. It wasn't like I. I don't feel like I wasted my time on it. I'm glad I refreshed my memory on this movie. Probably not gonna watch it again, though. [00:23:41] Speaker B: I feel like I do. I don't know if I can tell you the first time that I saw it, but I definitely watched this quite a bit back in the day. I can picture making the quotes and the jokes with friends back then, some of them even now, more recently. There was one joke that I was even like, I work in an office now. I never worked in an office back in the day when he picks up the phone and he's like, baxter, is [00:24:03] Speaker C: that you, Baxter, is that you, Baxter? Bark twice if you're in Milwaukee. [00:24:10] Speaker B: And I was just like, there's so many times where you pick up the phone and the line goes dead instantly. I'm going to use that at some point in my office. Like, I'm just, like, saving that one in the back of my brain. So, like, I can't. I can't say I didn't have any fun watching this movie. I just feel like watching it by myself. Already tired, already in kind of a bad mood. Like, it really. I put this movie behind the eight ball. You know what I mean? Like, this is the kind of movie that's fun to watch with somebody brand new, where hopefully they're laughing and laughter is contagious, and maybe you can have a good time with it in that way, like I did the first couple of times. Whereas nowadays you kind of know most of the jokes. You've seen them before, you've heard them a thousand times. The. The plot, as you mentioned, is. Is kind of stuck, you know, 20 years ago, if not further beyond that. I don't know. I'm having a hard time with where my score lands on this one, because I remember loving this, but I didn't love it this week. [00:25:03] Speaker A: Right, Right. [00:25:03] Speaker B: But is that on me or is that on the movie? And I honestly, I'm not sure. [00:25:08] Speaker C: And another point, we're all parents. We can't watch this movie with our kids. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Almost debated. So I'm like, I don't remember this movie that well. I remember the funny parts and all the funny parts I remembered were not hypersexualized. And you get like five minutes in the movie. I'm like, I am so glad I'm watching this by myself. [00:25:23] Speaker C: Yeah, same way. Same way. And for me, I don't get to watch movies with a lot of people anymore. In this day and age. I'm, I'm a father. I have to watch the kids. And I watch movies with my kids or I watch them by myself on my cell phone before I go to bed. That's pretty much my only two times to watch it. And so, you know, I was, I've been like watching the movie as I work in the studio today, trying to get through the latter half of it. And I found myself putting down my work and paying attention to the movie because it was entertaining, it had some funny parts. I think the beginning was rough for me because it was mostly Will Ferrell introducing his character and laying out the groundwork. And I'm like, I don't care about these people. Really. Later when they introduce a wider cast and have lots of interactions between the different people, there were just some good one off kind of throwaway jokes and scenes and sequences that were fun. [00:26:18] Speaker B: Now I'm super curious. You said you, you're not sure if you've seen Anchorman 2. I know I haven't. Will definitely hasn't even seen the first one until just recently. So that's going to make next week more interesting. I thought it was going to be. I thought you had. Had seen it. [00:26:30] Speaker C: Well, I couldn't remember if I had seen Jurassic Park 3 and I couldn't remember it until halfway through the movie. I was like, oh, yeah. [00:26:37] Speaker B: I tried to be more of a run memory. [00:26:39] Speaker C: It may be a suppressed memory. It may be that bad or maybe I haven't seen it and I'm going to be pleasantly surprised. I don't know. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Fair enough. [00:26:47] Speaker A: So you guys were talking a lot about how many takes they had because they were improvising. You know, I said that up to like 20 takes for a lot of shots in the movie because they would just spitball whatever was on the top of their tongue at the time. They actually released a movie based on the outtakes and things that weren't used in the original. And what was it called? The movie was called Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, the Lost Movie. Did either of you see that? It came out, like, at the end of the same year that this movie was released. [00:27:21] Speaker B: I had not even heard of that until about a week ago when I was looking on IMDb about this movie and I saw it and I was like, oh, I wonder what that is. And then I moved on with my life and I've never looked into it further, so. Fair enough. Okay, well, on Netflix or something super obvious. Right? [00:27:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:37] Speaker A: I was never going to look into it beyond what I found that it was actually made. But I was just, like, curious because Dan had watched the movie somewhat lovingly in the past, it seems, so maybe you had heard about that and seen that somewhere along the way. Dad, let me tell you, as somebody who has taken improvisation classes in the past, getting my degree in performance, I am a big fan of short form and long form improvisation. To me, this movie feels like. It feels like short form improvation, unfortunately. And I think it needed to be long form improvisation in law. And let me tell you the difference between the two, Please do. Short form improvisation is like a five minute scene, typically, where it's joke after joke after joke, just trying to one up the jokes that are going back and forth between the characters or whatever storylines going on in. In the Foolish sc. Whereas a long form memorization is typically longer and it has specific flags throughout to ensure that you have a good story arc, you have the climax and the resolution, and all those things are flagged in so that you know where you're at and how to get to the end. But you're still making it all up as you go based on typically, you know, audience suggestions and things like that. I feel like this movie comes across as just a bunch of short form improv. Like, okay, this scene's ridiculous. It's all about this. Now let's go to the next scene, which is going to be about something completely different. And I felt like it could have done with a lot more of the flags to keep it. I don't know. Just feeling more fluid. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Course well, and even based off what you just said, if short form is a five minute scene, this feels like it's extremely short form. Where the. From my understanding, never done improv. The whole point is supposed to be like, yes, and you're supposed to take whatever the person just said, run with it, and continue the conversation on in that way. Whereas everything in this movie felt like, I'm going to say something funny. You're going to say something funny. Completely unrelated. Run's going to say something completely funny. Unrelated. We're just going to try and make each other break, but we're not actually having a conversation. We're just saying the next most ridiculous thing that can come to our minds, and then they'll edit in whatever. Whatever makes the scene kind of make sense. [00:29:58] Speaker C: And that. That fellow, Will Ferrell, to the extreme in this case, he's just talking about the name San Diego and goes off the rails with that, which made for some funny quotes and everything. But it's so far just out there that I don't think Applegate had a chance of being able to continue that. All she could do is just be like, no, I'm pretty sure that's Saint, you know, and. And so. So that's kind of where the. The improv kind of derailed. I'm with Will on this. I. I wish they had more pointers to keep it on the tracks a little bit more, so it had a little bit more direction. [00:30:38] Speaker B: Christina Applegate was, in a lot of ways supposed to be the straight man, so her having lines like that I'm actually appreciative of, as opposed to her also trying to one up Will Ferrell. I. I apologize to Christina Applegate fans. I think she's wonderful, but I don't know that she's got the same level of comedic chops to keep up. And so I'm kind of happy that she kept more. [00:30:57] Speaker C: She's been in some other styles of comedies, and she's funny, hilarious, an absolute riot. She can do comedy, but she's placed up against these guys who are kind of like, you know, the SNL style pros. And. And I don't think that's her form where. Where she flies. And I think they tried to make it like that for her, and that's where they went wrong. I think they should have made her a much more grounded, realistic, normal person. And she's. The point where she tries to stick to a script and have a bit more structure. I think it would have. Would have landed a little bit better for me, the straight man. As, as Will's been saying, a shout [00:31:39] Speaker A: out here, Green tuck in says. So short form would be like the show Whose line is It Anyway? That's exactly right. That's when he did something totally unexpected, something so crazy and wild. It took me totally by surprise. Even though it was kind of funny, it still was really weird. It does a lot of the short form improvisation, and then Just to give you an example, I don't know how many people have seen this. It's a Netflix TV show called Murderville. [00:32:16] Speaker B: Kamal, what are you doing? You're so stupid. That's not what happened. Nobody's ever been this stupid before. That's not my inner voice. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Make it sound more Pakistani, but don't be racist. But do an impression of a Pakistani guy. [00:32:27] Speaker B: Okay. But don't be racist. [00:32:29] Speaker A: Good luck. [00:32:29] Speaker C: Good. [00:32:30] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, here we go. You ready? Hello. I'm. I'm originally from Pakistan, but moved to London when I was three. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. Will Arnett stars, and he's like this detective, and he always brings in a new deputy or whatever, a new rookie on a case. And so it's always like the same format. They hit their flags of, okay, they go to the murder scene, then they go here to collect evidence, then they go here, and at the end, the rookie, who has no idea what's going on, they're just throwing in. They have to see if they can solve the murder and. And. And find out who did it and why. And so that's more of a long form improv form. [00:33:12] Speaker B: I thought that show was interesting, but it really depended who the guest was. Some of those episodes were fantastic, and some of them were just hard to [00:33:20] Speaker C: watch, but 60% of the time, it works every time. [00:33:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Part of that is because not everybody's [00:33:29] Speaker B: at the same level. [00:33:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I got the chops for improv or does improv, but a lot of them are just like, oh, this is a celebrity I like. So let's throw them in there. [00:33:36] Speaker C: Right? [00:33:36] Speaker A: Yeah, they do. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:37] Speaker C: So let me ask you guys a question, and I want to hear from both of you. They had a few scenes that involved some special effects. Did it. Did it add to the humor that their effects were so incredibly horrible and ridiculous? I'm talking about. Who is it the. I want to say, Jack Black kicking Baxter? No, the guy that got his arms ripped off. [00:34:06] Speaker A: Oh, Wilson. Yeah. I'm gonna straight up murder your ass. [00:34:10] Speaker C: Nate. Pick up, mate. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Oh, God. I did not see that coming. [00:34:18] Speaker C: He's obviously got his arms in his jacket, right? They rip his arms. And there's a couple of scenes like that where the effects are so incredibly terr that it kind of adds to the stupidity and humor of the movie. Did you think that the effects were good in that. In that way, or did you think that they should have tried to spend a little bit more money and make that more realistic? Would it have been more Dan Burgundy? [00:34:40] Speaker A: Why don't you Hit this question first. [00:34:42] Speaker B: I don't think it affected my judgment on this movie whatsoever. Did it make it funnier? It's hard. [00:34:49] Speaker C: Was it the right call? [00:34:51] Speaker B: I think. I think it's better to leave that money on the table. You don't need to spend more money for a comedy like this to try and make that effect look better. I think it looks. You know what they're going for. It's the shock humor that you're laughing at. It's not, wow, that. They did a great job with that. If this is Alien, I'm gonna be a lot harsher on it for special effects like that. But for Ron Burgundy, I'm fine with it. It didn't bother me that much. The. The Kodiaks looked kind of ridiculous. They were obviously in a totally different scene. Again, so be it. Baxter getting kicked off the bridge, obviously a stunt double, but, like, [00:35:29] Speaker C: They didn't pay that dog enough. [00:35:31] Speaker A: I love how you called a stuffed animal a stunt double. [00:35:37] Speaker B: Well, sure, but. You know what I'm saying, Like, I. I'm. I'm fine with it. It didn't take me out of the movie whatsoever. It. Maybe it did add to the ridiculousness of it, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment whatsoever. What about you, Will? [00:35:49] Speaker A: Well, I mean, y' all watched army of Darkness, and I love that. And that had bad effects throughout, and. And it's what kept me wanting more. I absolutely love bad effects if they're purposely bad. [00:36:04] Speaker B: And. [00:36:04] Speaker A: And this movie, I think, lends itself well to that. It's an absurdist comedy, obviously. Everything is just to the nines. They're literally riding unicorns in a cartoon world at some point over a rainbow. So I think that all kind of folded in and worked just fine. Some of the more funniest, the funnier things I found in this movie were those silly bad effects, if you want to call them those. And, yeah, that's where I got my biggest laughs, probably, because I'm like, oh, that's so funny that you're just kicking this dog over the bridge. And it's so. It's such an easy cut to see. And the. The horrific stuffed animal flying through the air. It's just funny to me. That's my kind of humor. More than the rest of this movie was. [00:36:51] Speaker B: Fair enough. What about you, Ron? [00:36:54] Speaker C: So I was having trouble with this one because the effects are so obviously bad in this movie, but I think it kind of lent itself to the stupidity of it all when. When Wilson gets his arms cut off and he's like, oh, I did not see that coming. Like, that's not what you would save. Your arm was cut off, right? So it's ridiculous and it probably should look stupid. And so I think it was the right call. I just, like, this was one of those points where I wanted to kind of hear what you guys had to say and debate about it to see if it. If it wavered me, because this would be a big point swing in one of my categories was should they have used good special effects to make this funnier or the fact that they used bad special effects? So obviously bad special effects, practical effects that lent to it. And I think that's the way I'm kind of swinging on this one. [00:37:45] Speaker B: So I have an actual one for one comparison or pretty close, if you've ever watched the movie. Tombstone. I love Tombstone, but there is always every single time, like a two minute adjustment period where you first see Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell and their ridiculous mustaches, and you're just like, those are glued on. Like, there's. There's no way. And in that movie, that bothers me. I get over it quickly because I love the rest of the movie, right. But that irks me. Whereas you see Ron Burgundy's ridiculous mustache and you're just like, that's funny. That's. That's part of the comedy. So it does add to it in that sense. So I think that's the. The most direct comparison I can have where it's like, if it's in a movie that's trying to take itself seriously, it bothers me. But in a movie like this, I'm totally fine with it because it just adds to the ridiculous nature of what you're seeing already. Does that answer your question a little bit better? [00:38:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. [00:38:38] Speaker B: I like that. [00:38:38] Speaker C: That was. That was kind of my only checkpoint on this one. I. I pretty much had everything else solid in the numbers for my view of the film. And honestly, I could give it a rating right now. Unless you guys have some good points, some. Some happy points about this movie. [00:38:53] Speaker B: Oh. [00:38:54] Speaker A: If you want to talk about happy points, this just in. Run Burgundy Clean's Canadian Alert. Seth Rogen plays a small cameo as the cameraman. Seth Rogen, beloved Canadian. He is actor, director, producer at large, and he had his own tear at the camera for some time shortly after this movie. [00:39:18] Speaker B: I have to make a graphic for [00:39:19] Speaker C: every time, chat every time we have to hear about a Canadian every single time. [00:39:27] Speaker A: And you're welcome. [00:39:29] Speaker B: And it's not gonna stop. I have no problem Going straight to scores. I got nothing else to say on this one. [00:39:37] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. I got some more to say. [00:39:40] Speaker B: All right. [00:39:41] Speaker A: Not really. These are just kind of things I found. I was like. Will Ferro graduated from college with a degree in journalism, and he actually broadcasted and anchored his local news station for a few years before breaking into comedy, which was snl, and. And then further into movie stardom. So I thought that was interesting that he actually had some prior experience doing anchoring before he. Before he came up with this movie, which makes sense why he would write this movie, I think with McKay or whatever his name is. He also has played the flute since grade eight, so I'm sure a lot of the flute playing was all him all the time. Probably. [00:40:28] Speaker B: Yeah. They looks legit, for sure. Do you know, I saw that Will. Will Ferrell was a writer on this movie. I kind of assumed that was because of how much he ad libbed. Did he actually have a writing? Like, did he actually stand in the plot as well? [00:40:44] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure both. Yeah. I'm pretty sure they. They wrote this together. [00:40:48] Speaker B: Okay. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And I believe. Don't quote me on this, the original screenplay was about the anchorman team with Ron Burgundy, and they're on an airplane that crashes, and they have to defend themselves against a bunch of monkeys in the jungle. So that was the original concept, which at this point, I'm kind of wishing that's what the movie was. But we got what we got with [00:41:17] Speaker C: a tragic ending [00:41:19] Speaker A: to keep us from watching the sequel. But with that, let's get into some ratings and we'll see how this goes. [00:41:27] Speaker B: Sounds good. Brian, do you want to start us off on this? [00:41:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll go first. For me, I mean, there wasn't much of a plot, but comedies don't really need plot. I do like seeing comedies that have character development and a stronger arc. We see in the same light we see the 40 year old virgin. I think that is a much funnier movie because there's character development. There's well written characters in that movie that gravitate around the central person who is, though unrealistic, still believable. And in this character, in this, we had Ron Burgundy, who is just kind of bouncing off the walls and a completely unrelatable character surrounded by other unrelatable characters. And it was tough for me to follow. And this is just a movie of moments. That's it. I don't think there was much direction done on this. It kind of felt like they just all let him loose in a room and just Recorded stuff. I think the editor had more to do with this than the director because they decided what was going to be used and what was just going to lie on the floor. We talked about the effects. I think that played well. Somebody in chat mentioned that this was, you know, a. A timepiece. Right. And they were kind of showing that back in the day, what those effects might even look like from when this was supposed to take place. That sort of thing plays into. It worked out well. It added to the jokes as far as music and sound goes. I mean, they had some, you know, news media sounds that happened, and it didn't take me out. So I guess it was a good enough. I don't. I didn't notice anything good. So it got a passing score there. Does the movie hold up? Heck, no. But we talked about evolving comedy and how that changes, and I think. I mean, obviously, when this came out, it was. It was a hit. It was very funny. A lot of people thought it was very funny. But, I mean, there's also some viral videos on YouTube that are deemed popular, and I think they're popular because people are like, like, why is this popular? And it may have been that just a lot of people went and saw this movie early on, and everybody wanted to see why a lot of people were seeing it early on. I'm not really sure. It had some fun. It had some jokes. I did enjoy my time, but overall, I would not recommend this movie to anyone my age at this point. I might recommend it to somebody if they want to know where these lines came from, but that's about it for me. The movie did not get a passing grade. It came in just under the wire at 49. [00:43:54] Speaker A: Well stated. Run, Burgundy. [00:43:57] Speaker C: Thank you, Will Burgundy. Now, do you. Dan Burgundy. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Oh, I'm going next. All right. [00:44:05] Speaker A: Oh, this is a Dan Burgundy sandwich. [00:44:10] Speaker B: Oh. As always, not as always. There are a couple of times where I have to come in a little bit higher than the other guys, and I feel like this is definitely gonna be one of those situations. Part of that is, admittedly, because I do remember watching this movie back in the day. And as much as you're right, I wasn't watching any good headspace this week, and I didn't enjoy it as much this week as I remember enjoying it in the past. I do remember thoroughly enjoying this movie, and I don't feel like this movie would have been as quoted or replicated as it has been over the last 21 years since it came out if it wasn't good. Now, I'm not Going to give it a score based off what other people think. I'm going to give it a score off base, what I think. But the problem that I'm having is I remember loving this movie, and I know that I wasn't in a good headspace watching it this week. So I did give it a little bit of a higher score based on nostalgia, which is not a category that I usually base these things off of. Usually it's music, it's cinematography, it's acting, it's enjoyment level, and it's plot. And admittedly, as we discussed, the plot is basically not there. Like the big news story is a panda giving birth. Like it's not even trying to be there realistically. It's more about the. The feminist movement and how that was looked upon in 2004 versus how you can see that in 2025. It's just interesting. But as far as a comedy goes, I'm not looking for a ton of plot. I'm looking for quotable lines. I'm looking for a good time. I'm looking for fun. And in 2004, it gave me all of those things. Now, Brian brought up a really interesting point. There's nobody my. Well, he said there's nobody his age that he could recommend this to. And that was a dead stop for me because he's like, oh, that's a really good point. I don't know that there's anybody I would recommend this to. And that does make this a little bit harder. So it. [00:46:01] Speaker C: It. [00:46:02] Speaker B: My score went down a little bit during this conversation versus when I first put a score up there, but it is still higher than the other. Well, then, then Brian's and I'm assuming than Will's. I'm giving this movie A68. I still give it a pass. It's been alive for 20 years. That's got to be good for something. I still quote it. Lots of people still quote it. It is funny. It's just also really, really stupid. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Stupid is as stupid says. Thank you, Dan Burgundy. That was fantastic. All right, bring it in the ring. Enjoying this bit? [00:46:35] Speaker B: It's fun. I'm not gonna lie. [00:46:37] Speaker A: I mean, I didn't get dressed up for nothing here, folks. Okay, so we're gonna milk it just like Anchorman. All right. I am self proclaimed non Will Ferrell fan. He has done some okay things, some passable movies, but I feel like he has built himself a niche that people just glom onto and love and will love until the end of their time. And that's fine. Just not for me, I find Will Ferro is either yelling or crying or both, and this movie was no different. It was his second line in the movie before he started yelling, and I knew we were going downhill from there. This movie, as I said, I feel like did itself harm by not having a straight man character. [00:47:28] Speaker C: Yes, I know. [00:47:29] Speaker A: It's an absurdity comedy based on the 70s, so everything is a parody of the time. Unfortunately, they brought in the women movement of the time, but they just glazed over that as if it was an absurd thing as well. So I felt like they missed a lot of opportunities to have a little bit of heart in this absurdist comedy. And for me, if your movie doesn't have a little bit of heart, it drops off quite quickly, no matter how many quotable lines there are, if you don't like the characters. And I feel this is me going way darker and. And more morbid than we should ever go on this show. I feel like people want to be Ron Burgundy, and that is scary. I feel like to this day, people admire Ron Burgundy, and I think those people have missed the plot altogether, and I'm afraid for the world because of it. But on the positive, this movie had some great music. I love the music of the 70s. So I was just toe tapping away when I was sadly shaking my head at the lack of humor in this film. That said, there was a couple funny lines and there was one Canadian, so, you know, you can't hate on everything. At the end of the day, this movie just passed the bar for me at a score of 52, because I do understand that I am hard on Will Ferrell movies because I'm just not a fan of his brand of comedy. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean it's not well made. And this was well made for what it was. It just wasn't my cup of tea. All right, now let's get back to the Burgundies and round this up. [00:49:08] Speaker B: All right. And with that, we've got our score for Anchorman. It's coming in pretty low on our list, only beating out Highlander coming in below Gremlins and a bunch of other ones. [00:49:16] Speaker C: Don't act like you're not impressed. [00:49:18] Speaker B: I think this is actually pretty well deserved, to be perfectly honest. In 2025, I don't think this one should have been a whole lot higher. And quite frankly, with Anchorman 2, we're. Which I've never seen for good reason. I have to assume this is going to drop quite a bit, but check back next week. To see if that is the case. [00:49:34] Speaker A: I'm looking forward to it. Burgundy. [00:49:37] Speaker B: All right. And with that, that's all we've got for Anchorman. Tune in next week to see what we think of Anchorman 2. Will it be better? I sincerely doubt it. We'll see you over there at Twitch TV themongoolishow at 9:00pm Eastern Standard Time. Dandy caps. Go fuck yourself. [00:49:56] Speaker A: I really thought you were gonna go for stay classy. [00:49:59] Speaker C: You just. [00:49:59] Speaker A: You caught me off guard on that one. [00:50:01] Speaker B: Wow. That F bomb might stay. We'll see. Worth. [00:50:16] Speaker C: Sam.