Review: Anchorman 2

Paramount Pictures

It's been 9 years, and through all those years we've been constantly teased by the possibility of a sequel to the highly successful and hilarious Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The move premiered at what was arguably the height of Will Farrell's career and made the likes of Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd even more popular with a wider audience. It's ridiculous slap-stick, crude, absurd, random humor followed closely on the heels of Elf and Zoolander and then was followed up by the likes of Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, and many others. But somehow, Anchorman always remained one of the most beloved among this style of comedy.

Suffice to say, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues had a lot to live up to. Its mega-marketing campaign (including Farrell appearing on a local news station in North Dakota as Ron Burgundy and appearing in a random photo holding a 40 oz beer and a box of donuts) drove the excitement and expectation to a dizzying degree and made it next to impossible for the film to not make a bazillion dollars no matter what critics said. What's more, a whole host of celebrities were slotted to appear in the film (or rumored to), many of whom are former SNL stars like Farrell and Rudd. So, how does the legendary Ron Burgundy and his band of misfit anchormen fair in 1980's New York trying to make it on the first 24-hour news station?

Paramount Pictures

The answer is it's basically the same as the first film. Many of the same jokes are there and all the characters are the same, but that's just it. All the humor is the same, but it only made me chuckle at most. It became apparent right away that I am no longer my Middle Schooler self who died laughing at Farrell's weird phrases, Brick's randomness, Fantana's suave clumsiness, and Champ's yelling and crude jokes. I am 23 years old now, not 14. I may just be a grumpy old man, but I don't think I was the target audience for this kind of humor. 

Honestly, that's my main complaint about the film. So, if you're still a young-teen at heart or literally one, then you'll probably really enjoy it. Much of the humor (especially a whole middle-chapter plot involving a shark) is very random compared to the first one. The part I found most entertaining and funny comes towards the very end and features a whole host of unexpected cameos. I won't spoil any of them (and avoid looking on IMDB too) because some of them are really good. But at the same time, having a bunch of familiar faces show up at the end to score some laughs is kind of a cheap way to do so. Even though it wasn't "cheap" because I'm sure all those actors cost quite a penny.

Paramount Pictures

Interestingly enough, Anchorman 2 did attempt to have some sort of relevant, meaningful message. Much to their dismay, Ron and his buddies are given the 2 AM slot of the 24-hour news channel, and they are trying to figure out a way to get viewers at such a ridiculous time. Ron exclaims something along the lines of "I wish we could just show people what they want to see rather than something they need to see." And thus, the gang finds a way to boost their ratings dramatically and at the same time give birth to the ridiculous, flashy, pre-packaged, manufactured filth that is called "news" today (see: Fox News for a prime example). So writers Farrell and Adam McKay (also the director) try to poke some fun at the way news is done today but also draw attention to the fact that all media tycoons and stations care about is viewer numbers and ratings. Not if notable or necessary news is reported and in an educational way. These portions of the movie produced the most chuckles from me as they are blatantly copying Fox News at some points. Still, I think they could have gone farther in their satire.

So overall I found Anchorman 2 to be disappointingly un-funny. I guess I could have predicted such a result by using some simple logic, but I probably wanted to ignore the fact that I have matured since 2004 (or at least I hope so). Still, if you're a big fan of Burgundy and his cohorts, I think you'll find a lot more laughs in this one than I did.