When going to see a Will Ferrell movie, like Anchorman, one has to take a few things with a grain of salt. Ferrell does Ferrell style comedy, and does it well. When you go in to see him, you know what you’re in for. This creates a bit of a problem for some people since not everyone likes Ferrell style comedy. For those people, no matter how “good” a Ferrell movie is, they won’t like it. For the others, who DO like Ferrell comedy, no matter how “bad” his films are, they’re going to love it.
With that grain of salt firmly in place, a quick scan around the net shows that Anchorman is getting some predictable mixed reviews.
“For a comedy set during the formative era of happy-talk news, Anchorman doesn’t do enough to tweak the on-camera phoniness of dum-dum local journalism.”
— Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“Proving that even infantile humor can be funny, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy does make you laugh even if you hate yourself for doing so.”
— Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“the laugh ratio is about 50 percent, but that’s still pretty good.”
— Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
“Will Ferrell shows that even he is not immune to looking bad when faced with bad material, even if it’s his own. Possibly one of the worst directed films of the year.”
— Boo Allen, DENTON RECORD CHRONICLE
For more reviews check out the good folks over at Rotten Tomatoes.
