When Anchroman came out in 2004, it blew my mind. It was, without a doubt, one of the funniest films I had seen in my entire life. I was 16 at the time, but it has held up as I’ve gotten a little bit more mature. I still count it on my list of favorite movies, and will defend it until I’m blue in the face to anybody who thinks it isn’t a great piece of comedic work. I have this weird affinity for Will Ferrell and Adam McKay where I will, like, have their back as though they were personal friends of mine.
So when news hit that Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was finally going to happen, I was simultaneously excited and a little bit worried.
Why worried?
Because I knew there was no way it could live up to the expectations I would unwillingly build up in anticipation of the release. And I was correct—Anchorman was a one-time deal, and arguably Ferrell and McKay’s best work together. Anchorman 2 is not as great, but it’s still an extremely funny film. Unlike a number of sequels that have come out in recent years, it’s apparent that those involved went to great pains to make it as funny as possible, instead of, for example, throwing a script together based on the wholly implausible plot that a group of dudes would get drugged and forget an entire night two times in consecutive years.
In this sequel, the iconic Ron Burgundy and his news team take jobs at the world’s first 24-hour news channel after a work-related rift splits up Burgundy and his wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). They have a black, female boss (Meagan Good, who I would most certainly not throw out of bed for eating crackers), and they make a rival in bad-guy anchorman Jack Lime (James Marsden’s beautiful, beautiful face). Also, Burgundy and Corningstone have a child together (not sure of the actor’s name, but am sure he will be all messed up as an adult). And that’s about all you need to know.
You’ll enjoy Anchorman 2 if you don’t overthink it—if you take it for what it is: an over-the-top, ridiculous comedy that is blatantly offensive and highly quotable.
Should you see it?
Yes. And soon. So that you can enjoy the film before everybody you know begins to ruin it by repeating line after line after line. It will also be the only opportunity you’ll have for the rest of your life to see a new Ron Burgundy movie in theaters. At least I hope so. Another one would be too much.
Five thoughts on the film:
- It’s everything you expected from an Anchorman sequel. Every character is mostly the same as they were in the first movie, except now their antics are more ridiculous and intense. Especially Brick Tamland (Steve Carell). It’s like they wrote as many absurd things as possible that Carell could potentially do, and he just went with it and did all of them. They also throw in a female counterpart for Brick, a woman named Chani (Kristin Wiig), who adds to the “How mentally backward can a person possibly be while still being funny instead of saddening?” shtick.
- A lot of the humor is founded upon racism and sexism. Just warning you.
- This film is clearly a comedy not meant to be taken seriously, but it is also a vaguely brilliant satire of the state the media is in today. We live in a world where whether Kim Kardashian mistreated her newborn baby with wax is the news of the day. This movie really does a good job of satirizing the genesis of that kind of media coverage.
- As was to be expected, they got really crazy with the cameos in this one. There are so many famous actors—and one two rappers—who appear that it almost loses its luster. It’s cool to see all of these people, sure, but none of the cameo appearances had me as excited as Ferrell’s cameo in Wedding Crashers.
- The movie is longer than it should’ve been. Some parts dragged. This is a small gripe to make, though. Ferrell and McKay have such pull that they probably had a lot of say as to what was included and ultimately cut from the movie. I would rather have too many jokes, some of which fall flat, than to have had a really great one edited out.
Grade: B, better than average, not Harvard material.
