Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Anchorman 2... might be the worst film I have seen... in a long... long time.

I really have no idea what I just watched.

Now the promotion of this film was beyond belief. There were so many commercials, so many bits done in preparation for this film. Will Ferrell seemed to be hamming this part up to the max. He went on local news stations to read the new in promotion of this film. He seemed legitimately excited about this film, and I was too!

For the longest time, this movie was hyped up to the nth degree. 

Now I didn't actually go to this movie in theaters. It wasn't that I didn't want to. It wasn't that I didn't want to see a sequel to a comedy that made me laugh so hard my sides hurt. I just didn't get to it. This happens to a guy like me who doesn't spend every waking moment at the movie theater. So I skipped this one in theaters. 

But I did get reactions from friends, saying there was just something off about this film. It was good... just not as good as the first one. I also heard a lot of people say that it was bad, but I think I wanted to believe this movie would be worth it. Even if it was only nostalgia, why couldn't this movie be good?

Anchorman too begins a few years after the events of the first film. Ron Burgundy (played by Will

Ferrel) is living with this now wife Veronica (played by Christina Applegate) in New York and the two are anchoring network news. When the legendary Mack Tannen (played by Harrison Ford) steps down, he offers his position to Veronica and fires Ron.

Ron's life goes into a spiral. He leaves Veronica and his son Walter Jr. and gets a job at Seaworld.

Years later, he is approached by Freddie Shapp (played by Dylan Baker) who gives him the offer to be an anchor on a new news cable network where the news will be airing 24 hours a day. Of course in the 80s, these seems very silly. But Ron gets his news team back together and agrees to read the news once again. His goal is too get his old life back and be famous again.

His news team again consists of the old gang from the first movie. The suave and smooth Brian Fantana (played by Paul Rudd), the obnoxious and I guess now gay and racist,  Champ Kind (played by David Koechner) and of course, simplier than ever, Brick Tamland (played by Steve Carrell)

Now back in the first film, it was these four that made the movie. They had their great elements that made them a team. Furthermore, you liked everyone of them!

I don't like Champ Kind! Sure there were racist overtones in the last film but they were at least subtle.

I don't like Brick Tamland! Especially with his weird relationship with Kristen Wiig. And they're trying to make Wiig the perfect match for Brick, the female version of Brick. But they just say random things to each other. It has no reason, it has no comedic timing, its just stupid.

So to answer your question that I'm sure you asked, No I did not like Kristen Wiig in this movie. Which is surprising because I am usually a fan of her work.

And Brian was... eh. He was kind of boring in the first film as well so I can't really say anything about him. I like Paul Rudd, I like him in both movies, there's just not much to say.

The team is brought back together but is put on the graveyard shift of the network. Ron and his team are basically bullied. Ron is basically at his lowest before the first broadcast and then he figures out that Veronica has moved on to have a new lover (played by Greg Kinnear). And I'll give the movie credit, Ron Burgundy thinking that Greg Kinnear is a psychic because he's a psychologist was pretty funny and did pay off in the end... Believe me, I'll get to the end.

Before the first broadcast, their rival Jack Lemon (played by James Marsden) challenges them to a ratings competition.

In order to get their ratings higher, Ron and the team decides to distort the news being broadcast and basically create the news we get today on networks like Fox News, CNN, and others. Saturated with animation, topics that aren't really news, and making the entire thing entertainment instead of informative.

This of course is at first does not bode well with their new boss Linda Jackson (played by Meagan Goode) but when the ratings sky rocket, the network is happy and suddenly she's really turned on by Ron.

The two start a relationship and of course its a big deal for Ron because its an interracial relationship.

Now the whole deal about black people in this movie starts off pretty funny at the beginning. The team is uncomfortable working for a black woman. Ron is out of his element, this was funny enough.

But the more Ron and Linda spend time with each other, and the more they date, the more this movie is hammering in the race jokes and eventually they're just not funny anymore.

Now I'm man of simple humor. I enjoy shows like Family Guy, South Park, anything making social commentary or making fun of taboo topics or short minded thoughts. I also love a good fart joke here and there. I like low brow humor. I laughed my ass off at this.

I have my moments where I really like a joke being repeated over and over again...

But it has to be funny. It has to be done well and I'm sorry, sometimes Will Ferrell cannot do the same joke over and over again and make it funny. The fact that Meagan Goode's character was black in this film and the interaction Burgundy has with her and her family goes on for WAY too long.

Eventually, Ron becomes so famous it goes to his head and he reached the very top. So much so that he says good bye to his friends... until a ice skating accident leaves him blind...

Eventually Veronica goes to him and rehabilitates him while they rehabilitate... a shark?

Eventually there's a procedure that Veronica hides from Ron that could bring back his sight... and you know... I'm done. He goes back but realizes he should actually be taking care of his family, yada, yada, yada ya.

As you can tell, there's not much of a plot structure to the second Anchorman. I'm not saying the first one was incredibly fluid itself but when it went away from the main plot at least it was funny. It was funny when the plot stopped for a little bit in the first film for the different news teams of San Diego to get into a battle... not Kristen Wiig getting pinned up against a wall and her grannie panties being shown... that's not funny that's weird!

Furthermore, the more you look and think about this film, the more you realize its the exact same film. Ron Burgundy and his buddies do their shenanigans on the news, they have to deal with a woman that they at first done like but then Ron sleeps with her. There's a song in between, and Ron falls from grace only to get back up again.

And that's the worst crime of this movie.

Its always a challenge with comedy sequels to create something new from the first movie that in many cases was comic gold. This was the case with The Hangover. While I would never call that movie comedic gold, it was incredibly successful, so what do they do? Create the exact same movie and put it in a different location and slap a two on it. That's not creative work, that's ripping off your own work.

21 and 22 Jump Street did this and I would say that that is a case of a comedic sequel actually doing it correctly.

But you know if the sequel isn't that great, you can always go back to what you enjoyed most, the original right? That will always be something you can go back to. Right?

The worst crime of Anchorman 2 is that it kind of makes me question if the first movie was actually any good? Was it just me in my highschool years succumbing to dumb jokes? Am I getting old?

See Anchorman 2! YOU'RE MAKING ME QUESTION MY MATURITY!

Now... all of that said. With all the complaints and stupidity that goes on in this movie, I must say...

The end fight scene was gold.

Oh sure, it was dumb, it was just as mindless and just down right weird as the rest of this piece of garbage of a film.

But its the kind of weird and mindless humor that I actually liked about the first Anchorman just sent to a whole new level.

Ron is trying to get to his son's piano recital blah di blah di blah nobody cares. Suddenly James Marsden comes out and challenges him to a fight. Then Sacha Baron Cohen comes out from the BBC news network, then Kanye West comes from MTV, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler come from Entertainment news, Jim Carrey and Marion Cotillard come from the Canadian News, then Will Smith comes from the sport channel, then Liam Neeson comes from the History channel with the ghost of Stonewall Jackson (played by John C Riley) and a minotaur. Then Harrison Ford shows up again and turns into a werewolf. All of this sanctioned by El Trouisa Maiden of the Clouds (played by Kirsten Dunst).

Did it make a lick of sense? No. Does it make the movie better? Not at all. Is it even filmed very well? No.

But just the surprise of the entire thing had incredibly funny moments. I was laughing during this scene, something that was noticeably absent throughout the entire film. The fight was obviously trying to one up the last fight which I guess it did, but the first fight will always be the more memorable and naturally funny instead of just funny because you've got all these ridiculous things happening in it, like a minotaur, or Harrison Ford turning into a werewolf, or Kanye West.

And that's just what I hope I can pull from the first movie again, that while the jokes are still the same type of stupid mindless humor, at least the first film is not trying so damn hard. This movie just felt like an annoying kid making faces at me. Maybe once in the entire hour and a half this kid is making these faces, maybe one is kind of funny and impressive but the majority of it is just the same thing over and over again and really not funny.

And whatever you do, do not watch the Super-sized version with 763 new "jokes".

That movie is instead 2 hours of incoherent crap.

I tried watching that version a few times and I could never get through it because there was just way too many dumb jokes and it made me question everything I ever felt about not only Anchorman, but about Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell and especially made me question comedy in general.

The unrated cut of Anchorman 2 is probably one of the worst films I have ever seen ever and it should be burned. It even ruins the fight scene. Why did they think it was funny for Ron to stop fighting in the middle of this funny scene and ask Stonewall Jackson what kind of Japanese car he would buy. What the fuck?

I'm going to give my obligatory disclaimer on this. I can't sit here and say that this movie was garbage just on the fact that I didn't find it funny. You may have busted a side watching this movie while I didn't. I want it to be very clear that the problems with this movie are not totally with the humor, (though flawed as it is) but just structurally and how overall its just nonsense. Anchorman 1 was nonsense but at least it was coherent nonsense. Anchorman 2 is a horrible ploy to try and do the same exact shit but put a 2 on it and claim its different.

I might be doing a review soon on the first Anchorman to see if the movie still holds up, but for now I can truly say that Anchorman 2 was one of the biggest piles of garbage I have seen in a long time. Enough said.

What did you think of Anchorman 2. Does it hold up to the original? Do you feel like you're possibly growing up too quick by this movie like I do? Comment and Discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. Here's a slice of the genius that I still believe Anchorman was. Here's the Afternoon Delight Music Video. Enjoy!