Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
[Grade: B] Will Ferrell and director/co-writer Adam McKay find ways to top the first film's key setpieces, even the one that seems fundamentally impossible to surpass.
City Paper grade: B
More than most sequels, Anchorman 2 has a tough row to hoe. What made the first film great was its chaotic unpredictability and the rush of momentum that made it (barely) hang together. The Legend Continues, released nine years later, wisely takes a different tack, taking the edge off impressively coiffed newsman Ron Burgundy’s Stone Age prejudices and placing him at the dawn of the 24-hour news cycle. Leaving San Diego, where he’s been reduced to a drunken SeaWorld announcer, Ron (Will Ferrell) takes a job at the fledgling GNN, bringing the rest of his news team — Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Steve Carrell — with him. Carrell’s monolithically dim weatherman gets increased screen time via a romance with Kristin Wiig’s equally odd office worker, but his character’s more outlandish now, less sublimely strange. Ferrell and director/co-writer Adam McKay find ways to top the first film’s key setpieces, even the one that seems fundamentally impossible to surpass, until the one-upmanship becomes a joke in itself. The film’s take on the rapidly squandered promise of round-the-clock news lends a surprisingly poignant note, but not so much as to overshadow the delirious, low-calorie silliness.
