Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy 2004

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Little more than an extended Saturday Night Live skit with better wigs, real locations and a script that sputters as soon as its one-joke premise is exhausted. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It's a flat, dull picture marked by sporadic flashes of ridiculous brilliance. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: While the film is sporadically funny, it was done much better on the small screen, decades ago. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It's a cute, silly, likable movie without much weight or intensity, but it's also pretty funny. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A comic idea that never finds the comic wellspring or anything resembling a sure source for laughs. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... the laugh ratio is about 50 percent, but that's still pretty good. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It solidifies Ferrell's place alongside Jim Carrey, Jack Black and, when called on, Johnny Depp, as our best comic actors. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: For every gag that works, there's one that doesn't, and the story is too thin to keep us engaged otherwise. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Sloppy, crude, pursuing the most far-flung tangents in hopes of a laugh, Anchorman still gave me more stupid giggles than I'd care to admit if I weren't paid to. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: What takes the whole thing pleasurably over the top, turning a goof into a total gas, is the film's pitch-perfect absurdist comedy and warmth. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Overly broad humor with little on its mind. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Always affectionate toward its people, especially when they are at their most ridiculous, Anchorman meticulously builds America's dimmest news team. And we root for them. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Knights of Columbus! Wouldn't it be great if TV-based comedians weren't afraid of making movies that were funnier than they are? Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Keeps re-establishing Ron's egomania with diminishing returns of cleverness. The film goes nowhere. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: It's a long string of heavy-footed sight and sound gags that must have seemed a stitch at the drawing board, but made me squirm in my seat. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Ron may be an idiot, but Anchorman is no dope. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: The celluloid equivalent of a throwaway summer pop anthem, the sort of catchy-yet-agitating tune that has you humming in spite of yourself. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: As much credit as Ferrell deserves for keeping this nonsense from slipping off the screen, Applegate deserves as well. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It is not as maniacally uninhibited as Old School or as dementedly lovable as Elf, but its cheerful dumbness is hard to resist. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Most of it isn't even as funny as those supposedly humorous features that local news broadcasts sometimes end with. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Farrell carries the movie on his broad shoulders, nailing the character perfectly. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A lot of the time it's very funny. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: It has a pleasing, noodly elasticity about it -- the picture knows what its limits are and proceeds to boogie unself-consciously far outside them. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: You're not laughing at anchormen. You're laughing at formula movie rituals blown sky-high. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Funny in a roly-poly, shapeless way. Sort of like Ferrell's gut. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Like most of these sofa-spud comedies, Anchorman bears its attention-deficit disorder proudly, as it shifts tone and abruptly sidetracks. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: Takes a joke and runs with it -- sometimes too far, but usually long enough to wear you down and force you to submit to its craziness. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: That he can make his anchorman chauvinistic, deluded and ridiculous but still manage to give him some humanity is testimony to Ferrell's comic talents. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Ferrell has seized on a clever concept rife with possibilities -- namely, women breaking the glass ceiling in male-dominated TV news during the '70s -- and smartly surrounded himself with a topnotch cast. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: As parody, it's toothless and often smug, but as random Ferrellspeak generator, it has its delights. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: You will laugh. Then you will laugh some more. Then you will laugh still again. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Wonderfully silly all the time. Read more