Talking airheads

Anchorman, Cert 12A, 94mins

Will Ferrell (of hugely successful Elf) plays Ron Burgundy, a popular news anchorman in Seventies San Diego. He works with a fawning team and has a doting boss (Fred Willard who, on the sly, is one of America's funniest men, with appearances in A Mighty Wind and Best in Show).

Burgundy's life is pretty good, until newswoman Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) slinks into the studio. She is ambitious, in her lip-gloss, and has her eye on Burgundy's job.

And so the pair set to work destroying each other's lives. Burgundy tries to prove that Corningstone is dumb, while Corningstone does prove that Burgundy is dumb - this is a man who will read anything that appears on his Autocue.

The film plods on with gags about the coiffed people on television not being very clever, right up to its uberspoofy finish.

Ferrell, who co-wrote, is a comedian who has fallen prey to the delusion that it is necessary to ham up absolutely everything - nothing this actor does comes from the heart. He grimaces and gurns and chucks himself about; he wears a horrible wig; he spills milk down his beard; he cries hysterically in a phone-box; he drinks a cocktail using a jazz flute as a straw; he pretends his dog is talking Spanish; he tries to ask a girl out but the words that come out are obscene.

Even Jim Carrey at his most hysterical can suddenly let everything fall away and show us a real face. John Belushi dropped the senile bully act, too, for a moment. But watching Ferrell is only bearable for the length of time it takes to scrub the bath.

Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Cert: 12A