Review of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) by Keenan S — 15 Aug 2015

The original Anchorman is one of the most surreally goofy and downright stupid comedies ever made...and I loved it for those reasons. Admittedly, the thought of a sequel was both exciting and also left me with some apprehension due to the rather volatile nature of comedy sequels, which has led to much heartbreak and pain.

That being said, is Anchorman 2 as good as the original? No, it isn't. But, I got what I came for: glorious, over the top, utterly stupid fun that appears to be quite underrated (Oh, come on. 52% approval? This is utter nonsense!). I think that it's a very worthy sequel to the original that still preserves what made Anchorman the comedy joy that it is.

The plot hops into the 80's and Ron Burgundy is now married to Veronica, his love interest from the first film, and they now have a son and are also co-anchors for a news station in New York City.

Hoping to get a promotion, the couple is called into the office of nightly news anchor, Mack Tannen, who intends to retire and make a replacement. Veronica is promoted to nightly news anchor (Which also makes her the first female nightly news anchor), while Ron is fired and harshly criticized for his various mistakes and bumbling idiocy as a news anchor.

Angered by this, he turns his anger towards his wife, demanding that she not take this promotion, otherwise their marriage will end over it. She chooses the promotion, and now he is unemployed and the marriage is over.

Months later, he is now back in San Diego, where he continues to make a mess of things by getting fired from SeaWorld and then failing to kill himself. But things take a turn for the better when he is offered a position at GNN, a brand new news network that does nothing but air news for 24 hours a day.

But before taking on this new position, he decides to track down his former news team and get them back together to join up with GNN, which soon becomes a smash success along with Ron, who becomes caught up in the whirlwind of fame, success, a new love interest, and so much more, resulting in the crazy ride of comedy that one would expect from an Anchorman film.

The plot is thoroughly silly, but it still retains the enjoyable characters and their quirky traits from the previous film, while introducing new characters who are also quirky and rather amusing. It also works as a cheesy spoof of the price of fame and the 1980's rather well. However, the plot does suffer from issues, like a joke involving rival news teams that occurs near the end of the film (At least for the PG-13 version of the film, which is the version I've seen) in which the joke drags on for well over 10 minutes. Plus, the film can meander and drift a bit too much at certain times, but thankfully never too much. It's not deep or meaningful - it's sole purpose is to be as ridiculous as possible during the duration of the running time, and for that reason, the plot is enjoyable, albeit, slightly flawed because of it.

The acting is every bit as stupid and over the top as one could hope for. Will Ferrell steals the show as Ron Burgundy, embracing the ridiculous character to the fullest degree of insanity and fun. On top of bringing back Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell, Christina Applegate, and David Koechner, the film also brings in Kristen Wiig, Greg Kinnear, James Marsden, and a ton of other actors and little cameos which is a pleasure to watch unfold and watch them perform their suitably goofy roles. Nobody is boring to watch, as they all embrace their stupid, goofy roles.

The humor is still pretty damn funny, as I was laughing so hard at certain points that my eyes began to tear up because of the jokes. It goes balls out crazy in the best ways, and should appeal to fans of stupid comedies. If you hated the style of humor of the first film, you certainly will not enjoy this sequel. It just depends on what sort of brand of humor you're into to dig this film.

Anchorman 2 is a flawed sequel, but a very enjoyable comedy sequel that is still well written, well acted, and damn funny as a whole. If you loved the first Anchorman, I definitely recommend watching it. If you don't like this brand of humor, do not watch this film.