Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004.
Directed by Adam McKay.
Starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, and Vince Vaughn.
SYNOPSIS:
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy makes its 4K Ultra HD debut in an edition that ports over all of the very funny bonus features found in the previous Blu-ray release, including the extended version of the movie and a whole other film, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, that’s comprised of cut footage (and it works!). You’ll find a code for a digital copy too.
Fun fact: I checked out this release after taking in Alex Garland’s Civil War for the first time. It was quite the double feature: a grim ’n’ gritty tale of war reporters covering America’s second civil war, followed by Will Ferrell’s hysterical parody of pompous local news anchors in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
I’m glad I watched them in that order, since this movie was a nice palette cleanser. It’s been twenty years since its theatrical release, and Anchorman is just as over-the-top funny now as it was then.
The story, which is essentially an extended Saturday Night Live sketch (I’m okay with that), features Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, a 1970s era local news anchor in San Diego. His fellow reporters are field guy Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), mentally disabled weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and “Champ” Kind (David Koechner), a buffoonish sports journalist.
Ron’s world is turned upside-down when a new female reporter, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), arrives at the station. As you might imagine since this film is set in the 70s, Ron and his associates are a boys’ club, and they have a hard time accepting Veronica as a member of the team.
On top of that, Ron and his buddies have to contend with a rival news team led by Wes Mantooth (Vince Vaughn), whose show is second in the ratings. That leads to some funny scenes in which the two groups act like opposing gangs.
Meanwhile, Ron and Veronica get into a relationship that proves to be volatile, ending with a disgraced Ron falling into depression. When Veronica visits the local zoo to report on an impending panda birth, she is knocked into a bear enclosure. Can Ron recover from his depression and save the day?
I don’t think I’d really spoil anything by answering that question, but I’ll leave it unanswered, in case you haven’t seen Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. If you have, you’re probably interested in the details of this new 4K Ultra HD edition, which is the film’s debut in that format.
The theatrical version of the film occupies the 4K Ultra HD disc. While this isn’t the kind of movie you’ll play to show off your 4K setup, rest assured that the presentation is pretty much perfect. You stay classy, Ron Burgundy in 4K!
The other two discs in this set include the theatrical and extended versions of the film on a Blu-ray, along with some bonus features, and another Blu-ray that serves up a ton of extras, including a whole other movie, the 92-minute Wake Up, Ron Burgundy.
That other movie is comprised of sub-plots and other bits cut from the film, and it actually works on its own. It even features some well-known actors, including Maya Rudolph and Justin Long, who had their scenes completely excised from the movie.
It also manages to not repeat any of the footage found in the 54 minutes of deleted and extended scenes also included here. I wonder if the sheer amount of unique footage found across the two discs sets some kind of record, especially for a comedy movie. It must be the War and Peace of comedies.
Nothing new was commissioned for this release, but here are the rest of the extras you’ll find here, which were ported over from the 2013 Blu-ray:
• Commentary: Unsurprisingly, director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell turn this track, which they recorded for both versions of the movie, into a meandering, stream-of-consciousness talk that veers from talking about anything other than what’s on the screen to a mock-serious discussion of test screenings and such. Rudd, Koechner, and Applegate join them here and there, as do Andy Richter (yes, he wasn’t in the movie), musician Lou Rawls (definitely not in the movie), and others. It’s a blast.
• Bloopers (7:46): These are what you’d expect.
• ”Afternoon Delight” music video (3:50): It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone that Ron Burgundy is a fan of a song about having sex in the afternoon, and this music video is just as goofy as the scene where he sings it.
• ESPN Audition (1:55): This imagines Ron trying out for a spot on the “all sports, all the time” network, which launched in 1979. Fun stuff,
• Intro-Commentary (12:50): Wake Up, Ron Burgundy gets its own commentary, which doesn’t last very long but features Ferrell and “third listed executive producer” Aaron Zimmerman, who actually Adam McKay. (Such a shock; I know.)
• PSAs (3:41): Public service announcements (PSAs) were a thing back then, so, of course, we have to see what Ron would do with them.
• Awards Speech (3:12): The Ron-verse (yes, I just coined that term) is further built out with this spoof of awards shows. Predictably, he makes himself the butt of the joke.
• MTV Movie Award Interviews (10:14): I suppose this one involves time travel, since it features Ron Burgundy interviewing Burt Reynolds, Rebecca Romijin, and Jim Caviezel for the MTV Movie Awards. (Do those still exist?)
• Cinemax: The Making of Anchorman (9:29): This is a pretty basic making-of featurette.
• Comedy Central Reel Comedy – Anchorman (8:31): Not much different from the previous extra.
• A Conversation with Ron Burgundy (16:41): Bill Kurtis, who narrates the movie, interviews our hero (anti-hero?) here.
• Rehearsals (9:09): Unsurprisingly, there was a fair amount of improvisation during the making of the movie, and you get to see some of it here.
• Playback Video (5:10): A “remote news story” is news talk for a reporter filing their story while on location, and this is the Anchorman take on that. Funny stuff.
• Commercial Break (2:04): Amusing bits of the news anchors leading into commercial breaks.
A code for a digital copy rounds out this release.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
