DATELINE: San Diego (translated from Italian, it means “whale’s vagina"), 1970-something, when the only thing uglier than the ever-present ashtrays and porn-star mustaches are the fashions. Ruling the town is top-rated anchorman Ron Burgundy. He’s a terrible reporter and a loathesome human being, but for robotic news reading and fatuous assiness, he’s tops.

And who but Will Ferrell plays him in ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY. In and out of the newsroom, Burgundy is assisted by overeager sports expert Champ Kind (SNL’s David Koechner), investigative field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and mildly retarded weatherman Brick Tamland (THE DAILY SHOW’s Steve Carell). Their sexist-pig world is threatened when blonde, beautiful and—gasp!—smart Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) joins the news team.
If you’re looking for plot in ANCHORMAN, you just read it. This is not a film concerned with story, but jokes. Big, dumb ones, that mostly work. Alongside DODGEBALL, this is the funniest movie I’ve seen all year. In fact, one line early on made me laugh so hard that one side of my stomach literally ached for a solid minute. It’s an admittedly broad comedy, full of straight-ahead punchlines, absurd non-sequiturs and inane fantasy sequences.

And holding it all together as the glue is, of course, current reigning comedy god Ferrell. His brand of comedy is unique, as he can take a line that doesn’t look all that funny on paper (like, say, “You pointed at your boobies") and spin it into gold. As expected, he’s very, very funny. What I *didn’t* expect, however, was for the movie to be stolen from under his feet by Carell. Of all the lines, he gets the best of them. There are a number of AUSTIN POWERS-style surprise cameos and even Applegate is good (there’s something I’ve never said before).

It’s not for everyone’s tastes—those looking for a ripping British farce on societal classes will be disappointed—but it’s safe to say that if you appreciate Ferrell, you can’t go wrong here.

• Review by Rod Lott.