Nearly 10 years ago, “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” became one of the freshest comedies of 2004 as we were introduced to a new and wonderfully funny character for Will Ferrell’s talent to make memorable with his comedic skills. Ron Burgundy is a character who’s as dedicated to his job as he’s insanely unpredictable, and his dialogue achieves the status of being endlessly quotable.
After much anticipation, director Adam McKay has delivered a follow-up with “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.” In what should have been a breaking-news type of event for movies, the story, for the most part, plays almost like a news recap, using several of the same jokes, but is saved by Ferrell’s out-of-the-box performance.
A few years after Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) became a news-anchor team in San Diego, the two are now living in New York City and working at an esteemed news station. When Veronica is offered a job as an anchor for the nightly news and Ron is fired for his unprofessionalism, they separate soon after, due to Ron’s jealousy.
After a several months, Ron is back in San Diego, and his life is falling apart. He is then approached by an agent who works for the innovative GNN (Global News Network), an up-and-coming 24-hour news station in NYC. Before Ron heads back to the Big Apple, he rounds up his old news team: field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), sportscaster Champ Kind (David Koechner) and weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell). Once at the station, the team must deal with a big-shot reporter, Jack Lime (James Marsden), the station’s manager, Linda Jackson (Meagan Good) and the changes to the field of broadcast journalism.
Will Ferrell is still every bit as funny as he was 10 years ago when he first sat down and read the news. The spontaneity of Ron Burgundy is still fully intact, making his actions humorously unforeseeable. The way Ferrell approaches his character paints Ron as an overly dedicated news anchor, being so attached to his job that it’s ridiculous, especially when he’s about to do a broadcast at the start of the film, and he takes part in some rather strange, but funny, speech exercises. It’s absurdity that only Ferrell can bring to the role, similar to how it’s hard to imagine anyone else, other than Ferrell, playing Buddy the Elf in “Elf.”
Steve Carell is given more scenes this time around as the dimwitted and lovable Brick, and he remains fully committed to his character’s stupidity, making his Michael Scott character from “The Office” look like a scholar by comparison.
Despite Carell’s great take on the character, there’s the problem of having too much of Brick. I get that he’s a fan favorite from the original, but they overuse him to the point that you begin to think whether or not the filmmakers are contemplating giving him his own movie. He was fine as a supporting character in the original, but he’s pretty much upgraded to a main character for the sequel. His first few scenes are funny, particularly when he sticks up for his new girlfriend, Chani (Kristen Wiig), against a rude coworker. Most of his scenes after that, however, just seem to be shoehorned into the film to make him more prominent and to give the two an unnecessary romantic subplot.
The screenplay by McKay and Ferrell is an adequate commentary on news culture, and having an interesting premise such as that is the reason why the movie deserves better jokes. There are new characters, a new location and a new story. So, why can't there be new jokes? There are also a few plot points that go underdeveloped, and some scenes that should have been hysterical are merely just chuckle-worthy, particularly the segment where Ron meets Linda’s family.
The first half hour has most of the best jokes, with the rest of the first hour having a few good ones as well. It's the second hour that tends to be trying too hard to be so out-there, especially in the big news-team brawl. In a scene that should have been hilarious, it's just downright ridiculous. I understand that these films go for random humor, but the original supplied it in moderation, and that’s one of the things I liked about it. In the sequel, it just seems like the writers threw everything on the news desk with the purpose of being as erratic as possible.
Speaking of the big fight scene, it isn't a surprise that the film offers another news-team brawl, and it's one joke that I didn't mind having them repeat, until I saw its execution. The scene assembles more and bigger cameos for the fight, but it still manages to be pretty underwhelming. Ron Burgundy doesn't even do much in it because he's trying to get to a piano recital for his son, after not be a great father for most of the film. I get that it's supposed to be a character-development moment for him and having him participate in the fight would have negated that, but at the same time, don't gather all of these stars knowing there won’t be a good payoff. We see some fighting and an unusual amount of talking during the fight, and then the film transitions back to Ron, so we don't get to see much fighting after that, which is a shame, considering the celebrity talent that appears for this sequence.
Director Adam McKay is a frequent collaborator with Will Ferrell, and their usual flair for wit is present for certain parts of the film, but it seems like they were content with giving viewers the jokes they expected, instead of giving them some that were new. This goes back to the unfortunate tradition of comedy sequels reusing jokes. Will Ferrell is already funny enough as the title character, so he deserves some new material. If the writers can’t give him that, then it might be time for Ron Burgundy to sign off.
Final grade: B-
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