Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Christina Applegate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christina Applegate. Show all posts
Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis look comfortable and expectant on this poster for Bobby and Peter Farrelly's Hall Pass
Two sex-obsessed suburban chums get a week's 'hall pass' from their marriages to sow their wild oats. But SPOILER no one gets any sex out of it; just troubles, and the lesson that nothing beats the status quo.
Hall Pass packs a few scenes that are a little fun; the guys in Appleby's to score; the guys high on hash cakes on the golf course. - But apart from these scenes, there's precious little to laugh at in the Farrelly brothers' (Kingpin (1996)) Hall Pass, perhaps their worst film yet. Hall Pass is mostly quite depressing, until its last act in which it also grows nauseating. Peter and Bobby Farrelly devised the script with Pete Jones (Outing Riley (2004)) and Kevin Barnett (The Heartbreak Kid (2007)). The comedy-loving Bobby Farrelly is working on a new movie at the moment, the romcom One Night Stan (2016), apparently without his brother!
Do these actors look about 20 years too old to star in a film like Bobby & Peter Farrelly's Hall Pass? That's because they are
Watch the red band trailer for the film here
Cost: 36 mil. $ Box office: 83.2 mil. $ = Minor flop [Hall Pass opened to a slack # 1 title in the US with a 13.5 mil. $ opening weekend. It grossed 45 mil. $ in North America (54 % of the total gross) and received lots of horrible reviews.] What do you think of Hall Pass? Is this the worst Farrelly brothers film to date?
Recognize this mustache? It belongs to Will Ferrell's title character in Adam McKay's Anchorman: The Legend Continues
As a big fan of the original Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), I had been excited about the sequel for a long, long time, and, luckily, Anchorman 2 or Anchorman: The Legend Continues over-all is a lot of fun, if not as ingenious or wildly hysterical as its predecessor. Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)) is back as the news anchor with salon quality hair and classiness all over, and he and everyone else do their utmost in the highly anticipated comedy. Steve Carell's (The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)) character Brick has gotten much more space in The Legend Continues, where he falls for a similarly mentally backwards office mouse in the shape of Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids (2011)), and their scenes together are weird and often hilarious. Paul Rudd and David Koechner are back as the last two of the news team, - still characters with lines, but they pretty much do nothing story-wise. The plot of Anchorman 2 is nothing spectacular: 10 years hence, Burgundy has married Veronica Corningstone and they have a kid, SPOILER when Burgundy gets fired and then hired by the first 24 hour news channel, seated in New York. (GNN, a satirical spin on CNN, naturally.) James Marsden (X-Men 2 (2003)) is surprisingly funny, besides being terrific eye-candy, as Burgundy's younger competition at the new station. Here also Dylan Baker (Happiness (1998)) and Meagan Good (Think Like a Man (2012)), - who is an especially good sport here, play new, big roles. The plot is like the deranged story cooked up by a weird child, while it still fundamentally follows traditional narrative conventions. The film is very, very funny for a long while, but it strands very abruptly in the third act, SPOILER as Burgundy and his team end up in a grotesque news team battle in a New York park. We are supposed to be dazzled by the huge stars that cameo here, but the laughs dry up, and the long scene doesn't work at all.
Anchorman became a cult favorite, almost a legend movie, since its premiere in 2004, and the hyped, much marketed sequel is good, albeit without the genius of the original
Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate in the beginning of Anchorman 2. Unfortunately, the terrific Applegate's character mostly dangles around on the side-line in the plot of Anchorman: The Legend Continues
Budget: 50 mil. $ Box office: 172.9 mil. $ = Box office success
What do you think of the Anchorman sequel? If you disagree with my review, let me know why
+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best San Diego Movie of the Year
The hilarious cast sell the film for any comedy fan on this fun-spelling poster for Adam McKay's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Anchorman is a romantic adventure crazy-comedy satire set in San Diego in the 70s on a local TV station, where news anchor Ron Burgundy rules. But when a female co-host enters this male-dominated, closed circuit, it alters television forever.
Co-writer/star Will Ferrell's (The House (2017)) totally outrageous humor has free reign in Anchorman, which he wrote with Pennsylvanian master director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)). The film is a perfect mix of hysterically funny and far out lines, a completely lunatic and yet utterly controlled storyline, and stellar, comedic performances from an incredible comedy ensemble: Aside from a dynamite Ferrell, perhaps the funniest comedian of the 00s, we have Steve Carell (Freeheld (2015)), Paul Rudd (The Catcher Was a Spy (2018)), David Koechner (The Soul Man (2016, TV-series)) and not least Fred Willard (Roseanne (1995-97)) as station chief. Christina Applegate (The Book of Life (2014)) is the physically appetizing and deeply funny comedienne, who is able to share screen with Ferrell and not at all disappear altogether in his shade. Anchorman also sports an almost endless line of grand cameos. Ferrell himself calls the film the most satisfying thing he has ever done. And did I mention that it all takes place in gleefully decadent and/or gaudy 1970s sets and costumes? Anchorman is a perfect comedy, and perhaps the funniest from the 00s. Related posts: Adam McKay: The day after the day after ... the Oscars 2016 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] The Big Short (2015) or, Something Rotten in America Ant-Man (2015) - Reed and Rudd succeed with light, refreshing, FX-driven 3D spectacle (co-writer)
Cost: 26 mil. $ Box office: 90.5 mil. $ = Box office success (returned 3.48 times its cost) [Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy premiered 28 June (Los Angeles, California) and runs 94 minutes. The project went through many forms before production and at one point had Paul Thomas Anderson attached to produce. Shooting took place in San Diego and Los Angeles, California in and around July 2003. The film opened #2, behind Spider-Man 2, to a 28.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 85.2 mil. $ (94.1 % of the total gross). The film's reception in the rest of the world may be called tiny save for two other markets, where it took off: The UK with 2.9 mil. $ (3.2 %) and Australia with 1.6 mil. $ (1.8 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this one. McKay and Ferrell returned with a sequel with the supporting cast back as well with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013). McKay returned first with Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004, video), - based on outtakes from the feature, - and theatrically with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), - both with Ferrell starring. Ferrell returned first in Melinda and Melinda (2004). Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is fresh at 66 % with a 6.29/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy?
