It’s hard to believe it has been nearly a decade since Anchorman came out back in the summer of 2004. As time passed, I started to have my doubts whether a sequel would ever see the light of day. But as we know, the stars aligned, and fans finally got their wish with the release of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.
We catch up with our favorite news anchor, Ron Bergundy (Will Ferrell), who is still co-hosting the news with his wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). Only, Corningstone’s popularity star is continuing to rise, while Ron’s is plummeting. This soon causes Ron to find a new job, and a rift in their marriage. He hits dark times with many struggles along the way (a hosting gig at Sea World) and although the path to recovery is a bumpy one, he eventually gets offered a job offer at GNN, the first 24-hour news network.
At first Ron mocks the idea of a round-the-clock news station, but the pay is good, and he gets to reassemble the old news team. Soon enough, he packs up a RV with his trusted dog Baxter, and hits the road to reconnect the core four: Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), and Champ Kind (David Koechner). Since the release of the first film, the actors who portray the news team have experienced quite a bit of success, especially Steve Carell. But no matter, the chemistry between the four is still very much prevalent.
Things don’t come as easy to the team as they experience a bit of turbulence upon arriving to GNN. Their boss is a tough woman of color (surely different during the time period) named Linda Jackson (Meagan Good), who wants to make GNN the best it can be so that their rich Australian boss, Kench Allenby (Josh Lawson), is happy and pleased. Bergundy instantly makes enemies with the extremely cocky star news anchor Jack Lime (James Marsden). To top it all off, they’re assigned the graveyard shift at 2 a.m. But soon, Bergundy and their producer (Dylan Baker) find a way to change the news game forever: by delivering the news the people want to hear in a wild and unorthodox manner. Soon, they find themselves back on top of the news world.
The film does hit some rough patches, as it’s narrative isn’t as tight structurally and it has some scenes get dragged out. It also isn’t quite as quotable as its predecessor, but it still has plenty of classic lines that will find plenty of good use over the next few months. Anchorman 2 supplies high octane volumes of ridiculous humor that rival even the crazier moments of the first film. Not all of the jokes hit, but when they do hit that funny bone, it’s damn fun. There are many scenes that had me wiping away tears of laughter, just bathing in the all out blitzkrieg of randomness and stupidity that only an comedy with some handy improvisation could provide. Even some of the clunkier scenes, such as when Ron has dinner at Linda’s house and makes racist comment, after racist comment, had its fair share of chuckles. It’s that type of comedy.
Anchorman 2 surprised with the amount that it has to say about the rapid change of how news is delivered, something that we can still appreciate in this day and age. We see the news team adapt to the changing world of news, playing with new 24-hour stations and altering what kind of stories they would present in order to stay afloat in the ratings game. This notion feels understated and subtle, and will probably get lost on viewers throughout all the chaos, but it was something worthy of notice and praise.
Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner return with the same chemistry and energy that made them such a force last time around. Christina Applegate was good, if not somewhat underused. I also failed to connect at all to child actor Judah Nelson who played Ron’s son, Walter Burgundy. There’s also a somewhat underdeveloped (but forgivable) love interest for Brick named Chani played by Kristen Wiig. James Marsden makes a great heel turn here, and Meagan Good is sexy and fierce force. Anchorman 2 offers an insane numbers of cameos during the massive news team fight (arguably the funniest scene), many of which you truly will never see coming. Try and go into the film knowing as little as possible about who appears, trust me, it’s worth it.
I was afraid that Anchorman 2 would fail to live up to the expectations that most sequels do. But it delivered everything you could have hoped that it would. It has plenty of callbacks to the original, while also finding new elements to play around with, helping to create it’s own identity. It’s not just a page by page rehash of the original movie, like some sequels are guilty of (The Hangover 2, anyone?), but rather, a rock solid addition to a highly beloved comedic classic that is sure to satisfy its plethora of fans.
What more could you ask for?
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