Knights of
Columbus! The news team return in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues after nine long years away. In
keeping with the lengthy delay, this time it's the 80s; the hair is bigger, the
music is arguably better and audiences of America are getting noticeably
dumber. Can the second film be as instantly quotable as its predecessor?
Ron and
Veronica are now married with an angelic little boy named Walter and
co-anchoring the news from New York. Harrison Ford (in the first of one of many
starry cameos) wades in as the station boss, quickly giving Burgundy the boot
and Veronica a promotion. Six months later Burgundy has walked out on his
family and is sozzled and suicidal at SeaWorld but soon called back into
service by new 24 hour news channel GNN. Getting the old team of Champ, Brian
and Brick back together is easy, but competing with the younger and better
looking news teams at GNN is the tricky part.
In
Anchorman 2, Burgundy, like Will Ferrell, is stuck in the good old glory days
of the past and sadly often resorts to repeating himself. Scenes where he
entertains kids while drunk, or ice skates suspiciously majestically or
wrestles with vicious animals all feel familiar from previous Ferrell films. Anchorman
2 doesn't completely repeat everything that made the first film a success but
it certainly doesn't feel as fresh as its predecessor. The anarchic delight of
throwing any surreal improvised gag at the screen produces plenty of laughs but
there are also plenty of lazy scraping the bottom of the barrel jokes.
While being
incredibly silly, Anchorman 2 also dabbles with having something to say. With
24 hour news being the new name of the game and Ron desperate to gain bigger
ratings than his new rival Jack Lime (a scene stealing James Marsden), the
content of the show gets cruder, stupider and pointedly patriotic. Kittens,
crack and car chases are the order of the day with Ron pushing the boundaries
of what can be called broadcast journalism and helping to dumb down the entire
nation Fox News style. The news team talk down to their audience and the flag
waving patriots lap it up.
Anchorman 2 is actually
best when critiquing the decline of the
news, parodying its graphics, stupidity and endless sensationalism, but on the
other hand spends too much time in thrall to its idiotic central star.
Burgundy
has a developing relationship with his young son, an extended period of
blindness and isolation in a lighthouse and as a result the rest of the news
team feel short changed. Burgundy's blundering ways with his African American
boss (who inexplicably becomes his lady friend) and her family might give some
good, if painfully obvious laughs, but the journey of Ron from selfish buffoon
to responsible father detracts from the rest of the news team. Paul Rudd and
David Koechner are underused and while Steve Carrell's loveable moron Brick
gets a brilliantly silly subplot involving love interest Kristen Wiig, this is
still very much the legend of Ron Burgundy, not the entire news team.
With
Burgundy backed up by a supporting cast of crazy characters and cameos this
good, it is a shame to waste so many moments on the pompous ass that is Ron
Burgundy. If the legend continues in a 90s set threequel,
more of Brick, Fantana and Champ and a little less Burgundy might not go
astray.
