Wake Up, Ron Burgundy can be considered the first of these "dead Will Ferrell" films. It's as unnecessary to criticize this movie as it was to make it, as there is no reason to expect anything from a feature-length "alternate film" consisting of outtakes, ad-libs, and deleted scenes from Anchorman. The plot is meaningless, the jokes are mostly just improvised nonsense, and clearly the intent was only to create an amusing bonus for the Anchorman DVD. So that's what it is. There are a few funny moments, including a pretty hilarious bank robbery scene in which the robbers wear masks of Nixon, Lincoln, and a werewolf, causing the teller (the great Amy Poehler) to question the muddled political statement they're trying to make. Maya Rudolph is really funny as a radical-chic Negress; Steve Carell does his thing; and David Koechner gets a great scene that riotously drags out way, way, way beyond its natural ending. Corny narration and a lame "whatever happened to" wrap-up don't quite serve to glue things together. And ultimately this is just too much Will Ferrell improv, which quickly gets wearisome. We need to coin a word for Ferrell's particular brand of schtick, that crazy-eyed, blurty, self-amused, you-SO-can't-predict-what-I'm-gonna-say-next-but-it's-gonna-be-FUNNY verbal slot machine approach that bombs out about as often as it pays off. Someone call Rich Hall ... he's bound to be ripe to create really embittered Sniglets about other comedians by now.
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