Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Super Special 2-Disc Classy Edition (2004) |
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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Super Special 2-Disc Classy Edition (2004) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary Outtakes Featurette-Making Of Music Video Deleted Scenes Trailer Featurette-Behind The Scenes Interviews-Character |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2004 | ||
| Running Time | 90:14 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (19:24) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Adam McKay |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Paramount Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Will Ferrell Christina Applegate Paul Rudd Steve Carell David Koechner Fred Willard Chris Parnell Kathryn Hahn Fred Armisen Seth Rogen Paul F. Tompkins Danny Trejo Scot Robinson |
| Case | Slip Case | ||
| RPI | ? | Music | Alex Wurman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English English Audio Commentary English Titling |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
"I thought maybe we could get together later and touch each other in the swimming suit area" Brick Tamland
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was first released on DVD a couple of years ago. This new release, the Super Special 2-Disc Classy edition, is made up of the previously released disc plus a new disc of additional extras along with a cardboard slipcover. It is also at a budget price point. It does not seem to be the director's cut which I believe is available in Region 1, although most of the extra bits seem to be in the extras.
As many of you are no doubt aware, Anchorman is another film featuring the comedic talents of Will Ferrell (including a writing credit), Steve Carell and Paul Rudd along with many of their mates in cameos including Jack Black, Tim Robbins, Vince Vaughan, Luke Wilson and Ben Stiller (many of them as rival anchormen for other television stations). It was directed by Adam McKay who started his career on Saturday Night Live and was more recently responsible for the superior Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The story is set during the 1970s in a television station news room in San Diego. The news room has also been a purely male domain led by the anchorman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his crew, sports reporter, Champ Kind (David Koechner), field reporter, Brain Fantana (Paul Rudd) and weatherman, Brick Tamland (Steve Carell). Based on a directive from management, the news director, Ed Harken (played by one of my favourite comedic actors Fred Willard) brings in a woman as a new reporter, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). This causes great consternation amongst the guys who only see women as sex objects. They are especially surprised when their usual pick up approaches don't work with Veronica. Ron finds himself immediately attracted to her.
There is some funny stuff here but overall it does not quite hit the heights of the best of these sort of comedies such as Talladega Nights or Zoolander. Most of the humour is more silly than clever although there are some good touches such as the amount of smoking, drinking and littering that goes on. One particularly funny scene involves a gang fight between the rival network news teams including Tim Robbins as the pipe-smoking machete-wielding PBS anchor and Ben Stiller as the anchor from the Spanish station. Ferrell is funny as Ron although does go a bit over the top at times such as after the incident with his dog. The cast and crew obviously had a lot of fun making this film and the extras reveal that a lot of dialogue was improvised.
I enjoyed this film and in the Will Ferrell canon it is certainly better than some (Kicking & Screaming, Bewitched) but not up to the level of others (Talladega Nights or Stranger Than Fiction). This new edition is certainly worth a look for fans of the film due to the additional extras but is not an automatically recommended upgrade. Check out the extra section below for more detail.
The video quality is excellent.
The feature is presented in a 1.80:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. I noticed a couple of spots which had some light MPEG grain in the backgrounds but it is certainly not obtrusive. The shadow detail was excellent.
The colour was excellent, showing of the garish 70s clothes and furnishings.
In artefacts land, I noticed one black spot at 44:38.
There are three sets of subtitles on this disc, all in English. Firstly there is an automatic stream for on-screen captions such as '3 months later'. Secondly there are English subtitles for the main dialogue which are clear and easy to read along with subtitles for the commentary.
The layer change occurs at 19:24 and is not noticeable.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The audio quality is very good.
This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s plus the commentary.
Dialogue was very clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.
The score of this film by Alan Wurman suits the time period and is combined with a number of well-known seventies songs featuring the boys' acapella version of Afternoon Delight!
The surround speakers were used for atmosphere mostly, some music and a few minor effects in keeping with the nature of the film.
The subwoofer added bass to the music but didn't have a lot else to do.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
The extras are spread over the two discs. All the extras on Disc 1 were only the previous release and all those on Disc 2 are new. Most of the extras are not 16x9 enhanced. All have subtitles available.
The menu design is fairly simple and a little uninspired despite featuring some motion and sound.
As is generally the case with these films the commentary is very silly indeed. It is amusing and certainly worthwhile for fans of the films and/or the stars.
A combination of bloopers and other versions of improvised dialogue. This raises a few laughs.
Not a bad collection of footage both on-set and audition tapes of the main actors.
A highlight of the extras. The news team making a video for Afternoon Delight which is a hoot!
A large collection of mostly worthwhile deleted scenes including some alternate versions and dialogue along with a funny sequence about Baxter's funeral.
Just a trailer for Meet The Fockers despite the plural used on the menu.
A collection of alternate and extended scenes. Nothing earth shattering but still amusing.
Another set of outtakes mostly involving squirrels and defecation.
Full versions of audition tapes used in making of on Disc 1.
Rehearsal footage of the cast including scenes not included in the film.
Ron auditions for a job at ESPN with amusing results.
On set footage and practical jokes including lots of Paul Rudd in Y-Fronts.
Interview after a viewing of the film at the Museum of Radio & Television. Funny stuff.
Ron conducts interviews (in character) with Jim Caviezel, Burt Reynolds and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. Mildly amusing but mostly silly.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
There are a few different releases of this film available but the best comparison is probably to the Region 1 Limited Edition 2-Disc version.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;
On this basis the Region 1 seems to be the best choice.
The video quality is excellent.
The audio quality is very good.
The set has a large collection of extra features.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-533K, using Component output |
| Display | InFocus Screenplay 7200 with ScreenTechnics 100" (16x9) screen. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to Amplifier. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC -A11SR |
| Speakers | Jamo D6PEX wall mounted Speakers and Powered Sub (7.1) |