mnvnjnsn's Diary

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2004-07-21

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Hyenas...Anchorman audiences...Things that laugh!!!

Two things from Fark caught my eye today. The first one is a news story about a "mystery animal" spotted in Maryland. Funny, I think that would be called a hyena to those of us who are even marginally familiar with Marlin Perkins's work. Hate to break it to all you cryptozoologists in Maryland, but it's not that hard to imagine some jackass smuggling a cub into the country just for kicks. If a guy can have a tiger in Brooklyn public housing, Maryland farmers can have a dickhead neighbor who thinks it's cool to have a large strong nocturnal carnivorous Old World mammal as a fucking pet. I love a good monster story, but this one just ain't it.

Thing the second is just a funny observation someone made that I thought I should share with you all.

Finally, I have to take issue with many of the reviewers on RottenTomates and their take on Anchorman. First of all, clearly 47% of those people are lacking any sort of humor gland. The less we discuss them, the better. But even people who seemed to like the movie clearly still didn't get it. And I don't mean "get it" in that ultra-cool, performance art type of getting. I mean they don't get that this is a comedy of Blazing Saddles proportions and you don't look for character development in movies like this. Here is Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, taking things far too seriously:

"Will Ferrell is the go-to guy if you want to laugh your-self silly. He could read your mom's Rolodex and get you giggling. Sadly, your mom's Rolodex would provide richer comic material than Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a proudly dumbass look at the hard-partying, butt-grabbing macho-macho men who ran TV news in the 1970s. As played with sleazy glee by Ferrell, Ron Burgundy is the polyester prince of the Channel 4 news team in San Diego. Big-haired blondes swoon over Ron's blow-dried hair and coiffed mustache. "Your heinie is breathtaking," he tells one babe. "I want to be friends with it." Ron's anchorman sign-off at Channel 4 is a hilariously unapt "Stay classy." [...] It's a shame that Anchorman, which Ferrell co-wrote with former SNL head writer Adam McKay -- making his seat-of-the-pants debut as a director -- plays like loosely strung-together SNL skits that no one gave the slightest thought to developing. Scenes just end abruptly or dribble away."
What, did this guy go to see Airplane hoping for airline safety tips? It's a fucking Will Farrell movie. Any son of a vandrook worth his/her salt who has seen any of the weirder skits he's written knows not to expect realistic character development. Don't read the rest of that stupid review in Rolling Stone. It reveals some good stuff that ought not to be known beforehand. Peter Travers actually thinks the dog in the movie is speaking spanish, thereby missing the joke by a couple light years. Here's what you need to know: Steve Carell steals the movie from Will Ferrell and Fred Willard, and that's hard to do. It is sillier than you can imagine which makes it all the more brilliant. It's multi-layered, weirdly subtle and the viewer is expected to pay attention.

3:53 p.m. - 2004-07-21

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