Wake Up, Ron Burgundy

This film is definitely worth checking out if you were a fan of the theatrical film "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." This feature seems to be made of cut footage from the first movie, including a complete alternate ending for the original film. In many ways, this second ending makes more sense from a writing standpoint, as many things that are introduced early on in the script (that are funny on their own, don't get me wrong) come back in the dramatic conclusion.

The only flaw in this feature is that it tries to pass itself off a sequel, instead of cut footage, and it doesn't quite work. Then again, if you can suspend your disbelief -- that concept becomes pretty funny, as well.

Chock full of great material from Will Ferrell, this film also gives some more screen time for Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner. Justin Long (Dodgeball) even makes an appearance.

Great stuff... although it starts to raise the question - how much money did they spend on this movie? Enjoy folks!

Goulet.

Wow, I didn't even know that "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie" existed before now in 2021 as I happened to stumble upon it by sheer random chance. And of course I had to sit down and watch what writers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay did with this 2004 comedy.

It was actually rather interesting and fun, not to mention a bit impressive, that they could muster to put a movie together out of the dropped subplots and alternate takes from the 2004 movie. So that was actually some achievement. But it is also why you will not sit with a feel of there being a properly coherent - or well thought through - plot line or red thread here, as it was bit and pieces thrown together.

But it actually worked well enough, and it was fun to revisit the news team once again.

"Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie" is something you should watch if you properly enjoyed the movies.

My rating of "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Wake up, Ron Burgundy is allegedly made of deleted scenes from Anchorman, but while it's obvious how some scenes fit into the movie such as Ron's dangerous driving here leading to the parking scene in Anchorman, there's no way most of this would have ever fit. I assume a lot of last-minute re-shoots were involved.

Some elements work. The Alarm Clock gang is hilarious. They are a group with political goals, but seem unclear on what they are and lack any sort of grand plan. The bit with Amy Poehler as a bank teller who refuses to give them any money because they are so inept as bank robbers is one of the best in the movie. Justin Long as Ed's sullen teenage son, Chris, and Chad Everett as Jess Moondragon, Ron's mentor who won't shut up about how inappropriately he loves nature, also have some very memorable bits. Note that none of these (fairly significant) characters are in Anchorman.

Unfortunately, the movie is just a series of bits. It doesn't really come together. To some degree, this is to be expected in a movie assembled from deleted scenes, but it's more than that. The jokes get too much narrative priority, often leading to things that just don't fit in the context of the movie. Veronica Corningstone's personality is all over the place and Champ King's moment in the car goes on way too long, even though it starts well, for instance. This really hurts suspension of disbelief as it never really establishes any rules to play by.

This is a serious problem, but I'm giving the movie a 6 anyway, mainly because it made me laugh so hard I nearly vomited on several occasions, like when Brick explained what he was eating or any of Paul's attempts to explain the manifesto. In short, this is a great way to present deleted scenes. It isn't a great movie.

As I am sure most of you know, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy was compiled completely of deleted scenes and alternate takes. Some are saying it is a sequel to Anchorman, but it feels more like an alternate movie. The same things happen to all the characters, but in different ways. All it took was a narrator to piece together the scenes on the cutting floor and there you have it, another movie!

Wake Up, Ron Burgundy is obviously not as good as Anchorman, due to the fact that most of the best scenes made it into the original movie. However, it is an awesome supplement to the original movie, complete with it's own set of special features. It even has it's own deleted scenes. Considering the movie is all deleted scenes, they must have had a ton of extra footage to pull together a project like this. If the movie had to stand on it's own, I would not rate it very high, but for what it is, I give it about a 6.5/10.

I loved "Anchorman; The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and hoped this would be just as funny, but alas, it wasn't. Some bits are excellent though. I thought the sports guy, Champ Kind, professing his love for Ron Burgundy in the car filled with the other members of the news team was hilarious. Everyone is ignoring him and he just gets louder and louder and finally kisses Burgundy which doesn't get acknowledged either. But on the whole the story doesn't gel. It's a noble attempt, however, to salvage the unused bits from the first movie, including an entire plot about some pretty benign would-be domestic terrorists called "The Alarm Clock." Maya Rudolph of Saturday Night Live is one of the members and has a couple of funny lines, but basically this unused plot line has good reason to be unused in the first movie. The extras on this disk are pretty good, with the best two being the filmed rehearsals featuring lots of improv comedy, and the faux commentary with Will Ferrell and an "exec producer" who Ferrell discovers early on was not even a part of the movie in any way, shape or form. Turns out he's "just a guy" who walked in the side door of the recording studio and pretended to be a producer. It's some pretty funny stuff though and goes on for about 10 or 15 minutes