Review of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) by Ben D — 09 Dec 2014

Oh this review is going to be hard to write. How am I am going to adequately explain why this sequel is far worse compared to the first, which was so good, when on the surface they appear exactly the same? Well here we go.

Okay, both are both scatterbrained, random, stupid, and don't make a whole lot of sense. What makes the first work so well though is that it had amazing quotes and it didn't feel so forced and self-aware.

Not to say they weren't self aware when making the first one, but nonetheless the stupidity flowed much, much better, which translated into laughs. The sequel feels like the scriptwriters saying "okay, how can we make this even more ludicrous than the last?" That feeling is evident all throughout this movie and it makes it just stupid instead of funny stupid.

Every character seems to be pushed to the farthest extremes of their eccentricities. The first balanced these characters' idiocy perfectly. Here it makes them so stupid, they actually come off as rather unlikable.

It relies a little too much on its predecessors' success. They bring back old characters for cameos and they have the giant news team fight and it all feels pretty unnecessary. The absolute worst thing though is the utter lack of quotable lines.

In the first, I remember so many lines. "I love lamp", "I just burned my tongue". "Where'd you get those clothes? The toilet store?", "It works 60% of the time, every time", "No touching of the hair or face", "Well that escalated quickly", "Hi, I'm Brick Tamland.

I have an IQ of 48, which most doctors would consider mentally retarded", "Gonna find my baby gonna hold her tight gonna find some afternoon delight", and "You have an amazing hiney.

I want to be friends with it" So many hilarious lines and the sequel has literally nothing of that kind. All that left me pretty disappointed with this sequel. I can say goodbye to Anchorman 3 I guess.