It has taken 9 years for the next chapter of the incredible legend of Ron Burgundy to grace our lives. But in 2013, we finally got it. Here's my review for Anchorman 2...
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is the sequel to the 2004 comedy Anchorman, which is one of the best comedies of the last 10 years in my opinion. I think the reasons why the original Anchorman is so good is because the comedy in it is so absurdly strange plus has some of the most memorable and fasntastic lines that you can quote on a daily basis.
This next instalment in the legend of Ron Burgundy is directed by Adam McKay and sees most of the stars from the original Anchorman return, including David Koechner, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and of course Will Ferrell. Anchorman 2 sees the news team, now gone their separate ways, reunite to join a 24 hour news station, which at the time seems like a stupid idea to them, but of course we modern viewers no, it isn't and it works perfectly.
Again this is a movie in which I had a fairly conflicting experience watching it. As comedy sequels go, Anchorman 2 is a great comedy. The first two thirds of the movie follow the Anchorman tradition, with some absolutely golden improvised comedy pieces and some ludicrously quotable dialogue from all the cast. I did like the movie, but trust me when I say the final 30 minutes nearly killed the entire experience for me.
Anchorman 2 has a 2 hour runtime which for a comedy just isn't necessary. If the film editors had chopped off 20 minutes of that stupid final act and resolved it from that I would had enjoyed my experience more than I did.
The final 30 minutes of this movie just isn't Anchorman. Yep, you heard me. The stuff that goes on in this final act is ridiculous, incomprehensible and random FOR AN ANCHORMAN MOVIE. It is just such a mess to me. Some of the scenes don't work at all, they aren't funny. They're completely random and don't work with the tone that the movie set out from the start.
The runtime did bother me but only because the final act was so painful to watch. Honestly, the first 2 acts of this movie were really good. In fact, if they weren't as good as they were I would have seriously disliked this movie more.
Glad I got that off my chest! As a whole I really did like the movie and there are numerous reasons why.
When the comedy hits it hits home. Some times the laughs can be inconsistent but believe me when I say when the comedy gets itself right in Anchorman 2 it is truly histerical.
In all fairness I did actually enjoy the entire plot of the movie. At times in comedies it can be difficult to recollect everything that was going on yet I had no such problem in Anchorman 2. I actually really liked the story of how the news changed from reporting actual stories to showing car chases and stories about little animals. It was no longer about actual news but about TV ratings and I really liked seeing that. The movie had a lot more satire in it than I was first expecting.
Will Ferrell, as you would expect, resumes the character of Ron Burgundy with to perfection. The character of Ron Burgundy is the best character he has ever played and is pretty much at the centre of a lot of the laughs in Anchorman 2. Some of the things that came out of his mouth left me howling with laughter. However it is with another character where the show is completely stolen.
That is Steve Carell's Brick. Every time Brick does something, says something, is on the screen, I was either gently chuckling to myself or crying with laughter struggling to stay on my seat. There was one thing he said in particular, which I won't spoil, where I literally felt tears flowing out of my eyes down my face.
The strength of Anchorman 2 is with it's characters and it can be hysterical when it really hits home. However, a few times where the comedy really failed and a final act which nearly ruined the whole movie for me, I was pleasantly surprised by how good Anchorman 2 was. I was expecting a B-rate pile of crap but I got a good comedy as far as comedy sequels go.
The producers had nine years to come up with a sequel to this and thankfully they did take their time with it. I did like Anchorman 2, my rating to follow:
Rating - B-
1 sentence summary - A comedy sequel that is brilliantly hilarious when the comedy works, but nearly undoes itself through a stupid final third!
Thanks for reading, and stay classy.
Matt
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