There really is nothing like receiving a visit from an old
friend. Especially one that you haven’t seen in years. You start reliving all
of the “good old days” and the fun that you once had together. While mulling
over all of these past memories you usually fail to consider the fact that in
the years since you last saw each other that things might have changed a good
bit. Your sense of humor might have changed. Or you might just end up spending
a few hours reliving the past and not really discovering anything new. Combine
ALL of that together and that is how I felt about this movie. No new ground is broken
with this movie and most of the jokes are pretty standard Ron Burgundy jokes, but the cast and the audience seem to have no
problem settling into the familiar territory and “catching up” with each other
after Ron’s nine year sabbatical.
Storyline: After years of living with his wife and son in
New York City, Ron (Ferrell) and Veronica (Applegate) are called into the
office of the legendary Mack Tannen (Ford). Mack is retiring and must promote
one of them to Nightly News Anchor. He promotes Veronica and ruthlessly fires
Ron. Ron, hurt by the fact that he was fired and that his wife took the
position, leaves Veronica and their son in New York to return to San Diego.
After a few failed attempts at staying relevant he is asked to join a 24 hour
news channel. Ron goes back to re-recruit his old new team and convince them to
follow him back to New York City to take back what was stolen from Ron….the
news.
Worth the admission? While I am going to say “yes”, I have
to warn you about the second half of the movie and its descent into madness.
The first half of this movie is hilarious. But the second half of the film is
pretty out there. The situation that Ron finds himself in seems like a weird
direction for the writers to take. There were much funnier situations that they
could have written for him.
Also, the inevitable “News Anchor Brawl” that takes place in
this movie might be the single strangest thing I have ever watched. Not that it
was bad, or even good for that matter, but just insane. The movie kind of goes
off the rails a bit. But at the end of the day, it’s a funny movie with a great
cast doing what they were born to do.
As a side note, I LOVE the message of this movie and the jab
that it takes at those that sensationalize the news. The fact that the News
Anchor Brawl is so bloated and crazy is because there are too many news
channels involved because of the saturation of the market. I found that to be
one of the best running jokes of the movie.
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