“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues,” directed by Adam McKay and written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, stars Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Christina Applegate.
In 2004, an epic film of epic proportions was given to the world — “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.” “Anchorman” would go on to be a phenomenon, becoming one of the funniest films of the last decade, while also becoming one of the most quotable films of all time. “I love lamp,” “Dorothy Mantooth is a Saint!,” “I love scotch,” the spontaneous singing of “Afternoon Delight”…there’s so much to repeat from “Anchorman.” But now, in the year of 2013, audiences have been given what they have always been looking for…the sequel — “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.” Expectations heading into “Anchorman 2″ will be high and McKay and Ferrell do a decent job of delivering the laughs.
“Anchorman 2″ takes a bit of time to really get moving which isn’t such a good thing for a comedy-filled movie. McKay and Ferrell take the time to reintroduce the characters that we fell in love with from the first film which, while necessary, isn’t done in the smoothest of ways. With the 70′s now behind them, Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) and his wife/co-anchor Veronica Corningstone (Applegate) are expecting a promotion from their veteran newsman boss Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford in a wonderful cameo). Instead, it’s Veronica who gets the promotion while Ron is fired. As we all know, when things go downhill for Ron…they go really downhill. Six months later, Ron is the drunken host at Sea World where no one really seems to like him. After being fired from that gig, he’s approached by Freddie Shapp (Dylan Baker) and he finds himself with a new offer at hand: being an anchor for an upstart cable news network, GNN. What’s different about GNN? It’s aiming to be the first ever 24-hour news network.
From here, Ron goes out to assemble his old team – Champ Kind (Koechner), Brian Fantana (Rudd), and Brick Tamland (Carell) – who are all out doing their own thing. It’s best to not mention exactly what they’re doing as these moments end up being pretty hilarious on their own. Once the four of them are all together again, “Anchorman 2″ really kicks things off. When we make it to the Big Apple (called this because there’s an apple tree on every block), we watch this group of newsmen attempt to assimilate to the culture of this city. When they make it to the GNN building, they meet the rising lead anchor from Chicago – Jack Lime (James Marsden). Lime is a bully and once he spots Burgundy, he’s found his next target to begin to pick on. After being bullied by Jack, the news gang is brought to meet their new boss, Linda Jackson (Meagan Good) – an African American female. As you can imagine, things get pretty insane here as the news crew just doesn’t really know how to react to their new boss.
It’s best left unsaid as to what happens throughout most of the movie as the jokes of “Anchorman 2″ should be heard with fresh ears. Just know this – there is obviously another News Team Gang Fight with a ton of unexpected cameos that everyone can enjoy. There’s a pretty hilarious bet that’s made between Ron and Jack. Ron Burgundy unexpectedly changes the news format to make it more mainstream and makes things up to fill the time slot (pretty much how the news is run now). Ron has to learn how to become a better father for his son, who he’s unable to connect with. Ron is put through many different trials in “Anchorman 2,” and seeing how he adjusts to them and overcomes any obstacle thrown at him…we’re clearly seeing an American hero before our eyes. For those who can’t tell sarcasm, this is a joke.
It’s clear that this time around, McKay and Ferrell wanted to do something different, while still keeping the charm and charisma of the first “Anchorman.” For them to do that, they really needed top notch performances from the newcomers to the franchise. While we can expect the funniest scenes to be between Ferrell, Rudd, Koechner, and Carell, what made the movie special was the performances of Marsden and Good. Marsden brings the charm, charisma, and punk attitude expected out of a man like Jack Lime, who everyone should hate, but you can’t since…well he’s just so cool. As Linda Jackson, Good brought both humor and a sort of terrifyingness to the role. It’s clear that Linda sees Ron as someone who’s a bit of a joke, but she chews up the scene and it’s wonderful seeing Ron and the news team cower in fear.
I’ll say this right up front…”Anchorman 2″ isn’t a perfect comedy film, but is still one of the better comedy films to come out this year and expands on this hilarious franchise.
-Joshua Kaye
