Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Movie Review

Anchorman 2 was a completely unnecessary sequel that was probably just a grab for more cash, which makes sense from a business point of view.You would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't enjoy or at least see the original Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Releasing about ten years ago, it had become a comedic classic over the last decade and was so easily referenced. What made Anchorman so great was the originality and freshness of the characters! This is the main reason why I think the sequel was a bad idea because the novelty was now gone. I'm already familiar with these four characters and they would have to do something great with them to impress me like the first one did. I won't lie, I was really looking forward to the film prior to it's release and was very disappointed.

There isn't much that this film brings to the table that the first hadn't done already. The film makers definitely depended heavily on the love people already had for these characters to pull them in for this film. But it wasn't until the ball started rolling that I realized this was just a rehash of the original. The film starts off a couple of years after the events of the first film, with Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone, played by Christina Applegate, married and co-anchors of their successful news station. But there is trouble in paradise and Ron walks out on her and their son. Spiraling into depression and failing at suicide a couple of months later, Ron returns to San Diego but can barely even keep a job. This is where he gets the idea to get the band back together. Now I did enjoy the first act of the movie as it re-introduced me to characters that I hadn't seen on screen in 10 years!

Joined by Brick, Brian, and Champ, Ron brings the team to GNN, a new news network and they are in for a hard time. Now don't get me wrong, the film had it's moments and I did get a bunch of laughs out of it, but that doesn't mean it was very good. The plot was entertaining up to a certain point and then it just got old, dumb, and repetitive. I really just sat there during some scenes wondering what the hell I was watching. I think Will Ferrell has provided some of the funniest movies of my lifetime, but this was not one of them. Some of the jokes felt very forced and while I know this is the kind of comedy where the jokes are supposed to be really stupid, I still didn't really enjoy them. And I love those kind of comedies so this was even more disappointing. The film seems to not really know what direction it's going in, it just seems to be going.

The director Adam McKay hit a home run with the original film. Hilarious and ridiculous with even more obscure characters, it was a great and enjoyable comedy. The sequel fell short of this achievement and failed in every aspect in which it's predecessor excelled. The one scene that I did absolutely love in this film was the standoff between all the news stations. It was eerily similar to the one in the first film but ten times better with an ensemble of iconic actors with cameo roles. It was definitely the highlight of the film for me. I will say that they later released a rated R version of the film which I haven't see. Although it'll probably be way funnier, I still feel the film itself is lacking the appeal that the first one had. I give Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues a 4 out of 10.