Adam McKay directs Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd in this spoof comedy where a Seventies TV newsman has his perfect world rocked when he has to share the spotlight with a superior female co-lead.

“Good evening, San Diego. I’m Veronica Corningstone. Tits McGee is on vacation.” The film that launched a hundred quotes, a zillion gifs and made Ferrell a star. It is still very funny but this Saturday night rewatch didn’t hit the same giddy heights of laughter as it once did. I was expecting gales of laughs. Now knowing what he next went on to do you have the creeping suspicion that even here that McKay is trying to say something important about masculinity and sexism. Ugh! The best jokes still work gangbusters – Baxter, “I love lamp”, Sex Panther, “I’m Ron Burgundy?”, Jazz Flute, Afternoon Delight, milk. It is better looking than most comedies of the era. Applegate and, particularly, Rudd are superb.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Zoolander (2001)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/