Steve Carell and Will Ferrell are a great comedic pairing, but which of their movie collaborations is the best? The paths of Anchorman stars Steve Carell and Will Ferrell first crossed back in the mid-1990s when Carell’s wife Nancy Wall and Ferrell appeared on a season of Saturday Night Live together. Although Carell soon got involved via voicing sexually confused superhero Gary in the animated SNL TV Funhouse sketch The Ambiguously Gay Duo, he and Ferrell wouldn’t share the SNL stage until years later as part of a skit featuring members of the Anchorman cast.
Like ships that pass in the night, Carrell and Ferrell would later guest star in different episodes of Comedy Central series Strangers With Candy but finally appeared together on-screen when the first Anchorman was released in 2004. Since then, the two have starred in a handful more features together and appeared in a few episodes of The Office together when Ferrell’s character Deangelo Vickers took over the reins from Carell’s Michael Scott as Dunder Mifflin branch manager.
Today, Steve Carell and Will Ferrell are considered part of the so-called “Frat Pack” – an unofficial group of comic actors that frequently star together that also includes Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Ben Stiller. Carell and Ferrell have appeared in a total of four movies together, and here’s a definitive ranking of those outings from worst to best.
Bewitched
Nora Ephron’s reboot of Bewitched sees Ferrell play Jack Wyatt, a narcissistic actor starring as Darrin Stephens in a remake of the titular ‘60s sitcom. Nicole Kidman also stars as Isabel Bigelow, a real-life witch who finds herself cast as Samantha Stephens in the sitcom, while Carell appears briefly as Bewitched character Uncle Arthur in a hallucination of Jack’s. Unfortunately, Ephron’s attempt at meta-humor fell flat and the film was a flop – making Bewitched the worst Steve Carell and Will Ferrell movie collaboration.
Melinda And Melinda
Directed by Woody Allen, Melinda And Melinda features two parallel stories – one a comedy and the other a tragedy – that both focus on a protagonist called Melinda (Radha Mitchell), who crashes a party thrown by her friends. Will Ferrell appears in the comic portion as a married, out-of-work actor named Hobie who becomes smitten with Melinda, while Steve Carell plays his best pal Walt. Melinda And Melinda is bolstered by Mitchell’s performance, but it’s one of Allen’s lesser movies.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Almost a decade after the original came out, the Anchorman cast reunited for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Carell and Ferrell reprise their characters Brick and Ron Burgundy and though the film offers plenty of laughs (especially its extended newscaster brawl scene featuring cameos from Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Smith and Harrison Ford), it’s just not quite as funny as its predecessor.
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy was the first time Steve Carell and Will Ferrell appeared on the big screen together and it remains their best collaboration to date. Set in 1970s San Diego, the film follows a news team consisting of Ferrell’s chauvinist anchorman Ron Burgundy and Carell’s awkward weatherman Brick Tamland and is positively brimming with offbeat, slapstick humor and instantly quotable lines like “You stay classy, San Diego.”