Review of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) by Dave M — 16 Dec 2015

When you see the wide variety of movies that I do and many of them are award-bait "prestige" pictures and/or indies and/or foreign films (as wonderful as many of those are), sometimes you're drawn to a movie just because it looks like fun, even if it's silly fun. For me, "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" (PG-13, 1:59) was such a movie. It's the sequel to 2004's cult hit "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy". When I first saw the original, I wasn't too impressed, but it has definitely grown on me over the years, and the sequel looked like it might be just as good, if not better, so I decided to check it out.

The sequel picks up a few years after the original ends and takes the legendary anchorman Ron Burgundy through some new challenges. Ron (Will Ferrell) and Victoria (Christina Applegate) are now co-anchors in New York, married and raising a young son. It's not long, however, before Ron's legendary ego and barely-concealed ineptitude cost him his job - and his marriage. Soon at the bottom of his professional and personal barrel, he is sought out by a producer who is helping put together a new 24-hour news channel called GNN. (It's 1980, and this is a ground-breaking idea.) Ron reassembles his old news crew - lothario reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), caveman-esque sportscaster (David Koechner) and sweet, polite, cluelessly happy, but dumber-than-dirt weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) - and they head to New York. At first, GNN isn't exactly their dream work environment. No one knows if there's an appetite for news 24 hours a day and Ron is soon competing with a younger, ruder, more arrogant version of himself in the person of fellow anchorman Jack Lime (James Marsden). But it's not long before things start looking up for the old San Diego news crew. Brick meets sweet, polite, cluelessly happy, but dumber-than-dirt secretary Chani (Kristen Wiig). Ron's new boss Linda Jackson (Meagan Good), who is initially disgusted and offended by Ron, warms up to him in a big way, and soon Ron's egocentric attitude and unusual way of looking at the world end up serving him surprisingly well in this modern news environment. Then, a sudden change in Ron's fortunes presents him with a significant challenge to overcome before he can continue taking over the world, one news segment at a time.

"Anchorman 2" is every bit as funny as I hoped it would be. It starts slow (not so much in terms of the action, but in terms of the number of truly funny moments), but once the crew arrives at GNN, the movie becomes laugh-out-loud funny and even sillier than the original - if that's possible. Writer/director Adam McKay, who has often wrote for (and usually with) Farrell, and directed him in "Anchorman", "Talladega Nights", "Step Brothers" and "The Other Guys", knows how to use Farrell's singular comedic talent, and is in top form here. The jokes and gags are wide-ranging - including puns, non-sequiturs, sight gags, social commentary and just plain silliness - but, like the first film, much of the humor focuses on one topic with which Ron is struggling. The first time around, it was the introduction of women into the male-dominated world of television news, while in this one, it's interracial relationships. This issue culminates in a hilarious scene in which Ron's new boss / girlfriend brings him to a family dinner that will have your popcorn spilling all over your seat and pop coming out of your nose. Oh, and then there's the cameos! Even more than in the original, this film has a terrific assortment of guest stars - both comedians as well as actors known mainly for dramatic roles. I'd love to list examples, but I don't want to spoil anything. This movie isn't perfect, but it's fun, funny and better than its predecessor. I give this Anchorman a capital A... minus.