As the era of the 1970s has come to a close, legendary anchorman Ron Burgundy has been dealing with a rough life. His dream of moving to the evening news team as head anchorman have been crushed, with the position going to his now-wife Veronica Corningstone instead, and as a result, he splits from his love. Six months later, Burgundy is pursued and found by a man named Freddie Shapp, who tasks Ron, now working at Sea World, with reassembling his news team for a job at the first, inaugural twenty-four hour news network.
You may have to forgive me for this, but as archaic as this question might sound, is Will Ferrell the Adam Sandler of the post-90s era of comedies? Both men started out as bright prospects on Saturday Night Live, found a natural calling in cinema, and have managed to turn into humongous stars and guaranteed box office moneymakers. Despite most professional critics having mixed to negative feelings on the projects of both, they have their dedicated fanbases, who will travel out of their way (occasionally more than once) to give these two men their hard-earned cash in exchange for some good belly laughs and a nice escape from reality. Add to that the fact that both comedians can still prove their worth as "professional" actors if it is ever required (in Ferrell's case, Stranger Than Fiction and Everything Must Go), and I think it may be hard to argue with this comparison, unless you are oblivious and ate glue until you reached the age of fourteen.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues has been festering around for nearly three years, and Ferrell himself had to convince distributor Paramount Pictures that this film had to come to fruition. Mind you, the argument could be made that these characters and the plot have been rehashed in nearly every project Ferrell and co-writer/director Adam McKay have had a hand in, but that can be saved for another post. I'll confess to being a fan of the first picture, but I never possessed a strong desire to see a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, especially given the erratic track records of the two gentlemen mentioned above. Comedy sequels have a great tendency to take away from the greatness of their predecessors, or in some cases, make you forget how much you genuinely enjoyed them in the first place (see Son of the Mask for this instance….actually, don't see that film. Ever). Mercifully, this makes a good effort to stay out of such dreadful, horrifying waters. But it doesn't do much to make it a worthwhile film.
It feels as if everyone is on autopilot for most of their time spent on screen, and in a large percentage of these cases, it appears as though the actors forgot how to portray the characters they helped make so famous amongst the college and young adult crowd in the first place. Ferrell is in decent form, though he seems to be firing on all cylinders, with not all of the one-liners and insults working in his favor. Paul Rudd is largely underutilized, though he does manage to provide one of the more amusing character reintroductions seen in a sequel. However, Steve Carell is easily the biggest offender here, turning Brick Tamland from a character that was moronic, to a character that is simply too stupid to function, even in a wildly outrageous world such as this. Most of his dialogue consists of yelling loudly or flat-out forcing you to elicit any emotion whatsoever, be it anger or amusement. As a result of these changes, as well as more of a focus on idiocy and lunacy than actual decent writing, you may find yourself emitting more quiet groans or, if you're lucky, slight chuckles than hearty laughs.
Speaking of laughs, we're subjected to the biggest waste of newer talent I've seen in a sequel in quite some time. They aren't giving much of the new cast a lot to work with in the first place, and as a result, it just feels like they wanted to take advantage of the larger budget that was given. You have a rival anchorman in the form of James Marsden, a sexy new boss played by Meagan Good, and an incompetent secretary played by Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night Live fame. Marsden is fine and all, but it feels like his role could have been played by nearly any handsome man that auditioned. Good's whole schtick seems to be "Hey! A BLACK WOMAN is the boss! She's….black!" That works well for about one minute, and it all leads to a scene that I'm sure you've seen in the trailers by now, as Anchorman 2's marketing campaign has been the closest thing to overexposure you could receive from a comedy released in 2013. But they're utilized far more properly than Wiig, who felt crowbarred into this picture. Goodness knows that a woman of her comedic talents can usually twist something that's flat into something memorable, but there is virtually nothing memorable about her character. On the plus side, Anchorman 2's ending sequence is rather spectacular, filled to the brim with cameos and over-the-top hilarity, providing a brief glimpse into the ridiculousness and nuanced satire that made the first film so wonderful. However, all they're doing is rehashing and trying to out-absurd the original film's news anchor showdown by increasing the amount of people present, and even the movie's true conclusion is ultimately just a nod to Anchorman 1's final act itself. All of this will just make you want to view the 2004 film again instead.
Man of Steel can breathe a sigh of relief before this year has concluded, since I believe Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues kicks and stomps its way into the top spot of my most disappointing film of the year so far. Then again, I realize that we're less than two weeks away from the clocks striking 2014, so maybe this will end up being my most disappointing film of the year in general. There isn't anything that brought about anger from me with this picture (save for nearly every time that Steve Carell opened his mouth), but to say that it shat upon my expectations would be an understatement among understatements, especially since I went in with essentially none whatsoever. Still, you Will Ferrell fanatics who have stuck by him through thick and thin (and films like Semi-Pro) are going to watch it no matter what I say. Perhaps I myself was just looking for something different though.
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