Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Ten years ago, Anchorman was released to moderate success amongst critics and audiences alike. In the decade since, it has become one of the most quoted movies of all time and a favorite choice on the average in-home movie night. Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his news team slowly crept into our hearts with ridiculous sketch comedy loosely revolving around a not-so-epic rise and fall hero’s journey. After ten years, the news team is back, and a lot hasn’t changed, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It’s the 1980’s, and Ron is once again on the outs in regards to both his job and his family life. His wife Veronica (Christina Applegate) has stolen his job as the leading anchor at a New York news affiliate, and Burgundy’s massive ego causes him to walk out and take a job with a new 24 hour media conglomerate. Reuniting with his three best friends Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), Ron ludicrously climbs his way to the top of the Global News Network, but can he stay on top forever?
You’re enjoyment of Anchorman 2 depends not so much on your opinion regarding what is funny, but on your feelings about the first film and, more importantly, your affection for the characters. Though there’s a slightly bigger focus on the plot this time around, the film is still basically a collection of comedy sketches edited together to form an extremely loose narrative. Ron’s hubris gives him the necessary character arc, but it’s beset on all sides by ridiculous one-liners and plot deviations from way out of left field. Anchorman 2 is still not so much a story rather than an experience, a chance to hang out with four bumbling buffoons for two hours if only to help lift our spirits and make us feel a little smarter by comparison.
Anchorman was a film that essentially skyrocketed many of its stars onto the Hollywood radar. It solidified Ferrell as a comedy film star, preceded Carell’s groundbreaking role in The Office, and even Paul Rudd started getting more gigs as a character actor. Now that the franchise has some momentum, even more stars have offered their services. The cameos in Anchorman 2 rival any of the Muppet movies, there’s almost no subplot character or tiny side role that isn’t filled with an A-lister. A terrific example is a full blown battle royale in Central Park, which actually falls a bit short of its predecessor in terms of action comedy, but features so many stars that the introduction of the participants almost justifies the excess of the scene. Lastly, Kristen Wiig steals the show as Brick’s dream woman Chani. It’s not necessarily that their scenes are the funniest in the film, but the match-up is so wonderful that anyone with affection for Brick will be delighted that he found the perfect kindred spirit.
Dumb is a word that both does and doesn’t describe the Anchorman franchise. The majority of the jokes are improvised nonsense that come from so far out there, our brain can’t help but laugh rather than try to process how those words found their way out of somebody’s head. Indeed, both films were obviously created in the editing room, and the DVD is likely to feature deleted scenes that showcase how any given line of dialogue produced a dozen improvised responses. But there are also some sly digs at the world of cable news broadcasting, particularly some hindsight gags that shine light on the fact that car chases weren’t always a huge deal on the news, and that our networking and technology hasn’t necessarily kept us in touch with what’s going on in the world. It’s not subtle in any way, but the satire still makes me chuckle a bit before we’ve moved on to Ron bottle feeding a shark.
The big problem that Anchorman 2 has is its pacing. Though I’m willing to forgive a lot of the jokes that fall flat, nearly the entire first act is grueling to get through. In most films, the stereotypical “rounding up the old gang” sequence is good for laughs and reacquaints us with old friends. Anchorman 2 makes me despise Brian, Champ, and Brick for the first twenty minutes, as I find their re-introductions banal and an embodiment of what the haters hate about the series. Luckily, Act II is a barrage of jokes that broke down that wall fairly quickly and restored my faith that the team hadn’t lost their swagger. But like the original, the third act doesn’t quite seem to know where to go, and eats up a lot of screen time that might have helped the story better from the cutting room floor. It’s difficult to keep up a constant supply of good vibrations, but the huge gaps in Anchorman 2 are more than just a little hiccup.
Like the original film, Anchorman 2 is bound to be endlessly quoted, and will likely be enjoyed even more with repeat viewings. I’m not a diehard supporter, nor do I believe that this series is the best comedic contribution to film of the last decade, but I’m a fan. I like the characters, even though I feel superior to them in every way. Admittedly, it could be very taxing to spend more than two hours with these train wrecks, but Ferrell and his colleagues are charming in small doses. I can understand how their cartoonish extravagance and improvised babblings can annoy some, but I’m surprisingly still on board with wherever the future will take the team. Twitter, anyone?
