Review of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) by Sgdub66 — 28 Dec 2013

What is there to expect from a Will Ferrell sequel? Anchorman 2 is his first sequel, and not only that, but it happens to be the sequel to his largest film, both critically large, and also culturally. The original Anchorman was a bit of a revolution in comedic cinema.

It was ballsy, wild, and unpredictable. More importantly... it was fresh. A new breath to comedy, a fresh unheard voice. This success is in fact the ultimate downfall of the sequel Anchorman 2: the Legend Continues.

While it was not a terrible film, that did offer up a few laughs, this film felt like a throwback, a film whose only intent was to reference the original film. Many of the jokes were carbon copy gags.

The entire arc of the film followed that of the original, including the ultimate climax of the news cast street battle found in both films. It seemed to me, that the creative team (Adam McKay and Will Ferrell) excpected the audience to want to watch the original film.

Rehashing gags, and barely making them new. Is this what we the audience wanted? If this is what we wanted to watch, why not just watch the original? When news dropped that a new Anchorman was in development, the question of "is this needed" was asked by many.

I personally defended the choice, believing comedic cinema could use another jolt, another wake up call, a call that I thought only Will Ferrell and his team could offer up. What I saw when I watched Anchorman 2, was not that, but instead the original Anchorman in sheeps clothes.

The character of Brian Fantana, played honestly and charmingly by Paul Rudd, is iconically remembered from the original Anchorman for his collection of cologne and men's perfumes, the punch line being found in "the Sex Panther cologne.

" The sequel tries to rekindle this magic, by displaying Fantana's collection of condoms, most of which offer nothing in the department of protection. The same hidden storage compartment, the same outlandich names, just not quite as funny as the original.

Ron Burgandy, played obviously by Ferrell himself, is said to be the best anchorman in the buisness, who reads exactly what the teleprompter tells him, no if's, and's, or but's. In the original Anchorman, this lead to the classic line of "And I'm Ron Burgundy.

Go yourself San Diego." In the sequel, we find Burgundy losing his job, because he reads exactly what is on the teleprompter. Same gag, different movie... but barely. The new film does offer a few new laughs however.

The romantic subplot between Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and Chani (Kristen Wiig) was where the film found its stride. The explosion of Carell's career with the hit show the Office as well as other fantastic projects, lead everyone to know his character Brick would have more screen time, more jokes, and more significance in the film.

The chemistry between him and Wiig (a brilliant comedian in her own right) was fresh and quircky. The improv nature that they brught to the set left the audience reeling, never knowing what to excpect next, and there was no way to guess, for each moment between the two was as absurd and brilliant as the one previous, surmounting in a date to a laundrymat, getting to know each other over soda out of the maching, and a torrid, awkward make out session revealing Wiig's whity tighty under wear.

The other brilliant subplot this film offered was that of Burgundy losing his vision, leading to a hysterical recouping sub plot where he tries to learn how to exist in the world without vision. But, this also felt recycled, finding similar tones to Ferrell and McKays Talledega Nights.

As funny as these moments were they were not fresh enough to save the film. The secret to comedy is in fact timing. never let the audience get a head of you. If they have the punch line figured out before it's said, if they have the gag calculated before it is done, the joke is dead and the laugh is lost.

All the punchlines were in Anchorman 2 were predictable, because we have seen them played out in the original film. As Anchorman 2's credits rolled, and I threw away my popcorn, walking to my car I had a leathery taste in my mouth, like I had just spent the last two hours chewing on a well used boot.