Will Ferrell as a seventies-era schmuck-a local-news anchorman with a mustache thick enough to scale a fish. There are a few laughs, and one beautiful prolonged gag at the end involving rival local-news teams. But Ferrell and his old "Saturday Night Live" buddy Adam McKay (who directed) don't seem to have the shape of a movie-any movie-in their bones or even in their hopes. In a typical scene, someone shouts and does something strange, then McKay cuts to someone else shouting and doing something strange, then back to the first guy, then the scene is over. Ferrell does the regular-guy bellow, the nod-and-wink chumminess, the manly stare, the blank-brained self-confidence, but even a schmuck has to have a soul if he's going to be the center of a two-hour movie. Ferrell is a buffoon, but he's not an actor-at least not yet.