RON Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is the five-time Emmy Award-winning anchorman of the top-rated KVWN Channel 4 news in San Diego in the 70s.

Every night, the city tunes in to see Ron distil the headlines of the day in his usual easy-going manner, and to smile proudly at his signature sign-off: "Stay classy San Diego".

Tempers flare and egos are severely bruised when long suffering station manager Ed Harken (Fred Willard) elects to hire a woman as Ron's co-presenter.

The fragrance of feminism wafts into the newsroom in the form of ambitious journalist Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), who has her sights set on becoming the network's first ever female anchor.

Using her feminine wiles, she romances Ron, hoping to use his influence and power for her own gain.

Ron's adoring news team - sports reporter Champ Kind (David Koechner), weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) - resent Veronica's challenge to the macho status quo and they plot to halt her meteoric rise through the ranks.

"I love the ladies but they don't belong in the newsroom!" snaps Brian. Champ puts it more succinctly: "It is anchorman, not anchorlady!"

However, Veronica is no push-over and she resorts to dirty tactics of her own, aided by a small army of secretaries and assistants.

Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is a one-joke movie and unfortunately, it ceases to be funny after the first 10 minutes.

Even the out-takes after the credits struggle to warrant a smile let alone a laugh.

Perhaps the iconic figure of the anchorman, so ingrained in American TV culture, simply doesn't translate across the Atlantic.

The script has some nice moments, such as a showdown between San Diego's rival news teams featuring cameos from Tim Robbins, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, but these are few and far between.

Ferrell works tirelessly to endear Ron to us but he's too much of a buffoon and a caricature.

Applegate fares slightly better, despite a paucity of sparkling one-liners, especially in her pivotal argument with Ed Harken when she screams at him, "There are three things I'm good at: fighting, screwing, and reading the news. I've already done one of those things today, and I'm about to do one more. Which is it gonna be?"

Supporting cast add flecks of colour, and the costumes and set design hark back to a time that fashion sense forgot.

See it at UCI, ABC