Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Directed by Adam McKay
Starring Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Christina Applegate
With cameos by everybody
In UK Cinemas December 18th, 2013
by Joanna Orland
Nearly a decade after the first Anchorman film was unleashed unto the public, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues brings the welcome return of Ron Burgundy and his news team of weatherman Brick Tamland, field reporter Brian Fantana and sports anchor Champ Kind. Ron and his team are no longer San Diego’s top rated news team. The team have gone their separate ways with Ron and wife Veronica Cornerstone having moved to New York as a co-anchoring team on WBC, clearly a stand-in for NBC.
Their boss Mack Harken (Harrison Ford) fires Ron and makes Veronica the first female anchor on their headline programme. This causes friction between the couple resulting in Ron walking out on his wife and their young son Walter. Down on his luck, redemption is in site when Ron gets approached to anchor America’s first 24 hour news channel GNN, obviously a nod to CNN. The team thrive in their new roles and change the face of news reporting forever.
This film is both awful and awesome. There are some truly unfunny moments that make you wonder what they were thinking when making this film. But to the contrary, there are some truly ingenious comedic moments that make you forgive all of the jokes that fall flat. There are also some truly odd moments that are just so strange you can’t help but laugh. There are also just enough homages to the first Anchorman film to satisfy any Ron Burgundy fan. And lastly, there are dozens of awesome cameos by the most random of famous faces. Some are very excellent including Sacha Baron Cohen, Jim Carrey, Kanye West, Marion Cotillard, Liam Neeson, Vince Vaughn, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler amongst the best.
Anchorman 2 is in the same vain as the first, with one key difference. Since the first film was made, Steve Carell has become a huge star and leading man in his own right. In the first film he was a periphery character with many ingenious one liners. In this film, he has a subplot and romance of his own. Sometimes this works very well. Other times it falls flat. But Carell’s Brick Tamland has more than his fair share of the funniest moments in this film – notably a St. Patrick’s Day incident that had me in fits of laughter. Will Ferrell has been overshadowed in his own film for the first time in history.
Ferrell takes the film back to Ron during key pivotal plot twists towards the last third of this film. Here is where some of the oddest plot devices can be found. At first it’s a bit disconcerting and nonsensical, but it is so odd and random that you can’t help but find it hysterical. Especially as you’ll have already been won over by the charms of Anchorman‘s sense of humour.
Besides the core news team and Veronica Cornerstone returning to the Anchorman franchise, new and notable performances are filled out nicely with cast members including the beautiful James Marsden as Ron’s new nemesis and Greg Kinnear as Ron’s new love rival. Between the cast and the cameos, this film basically has the best talent roster in modern film history.
If you’re a fan of Anchorman, you will overall not be disappointed with its sequel. It may take quite a few scenes to accept that this is the output of Ron Burgundy’s return, but in the end, he stays classy.
