Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Review

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.

Why Nothing Beats Elf at Christmas

First an admission: I grew up on Home Alone. I was nine when it was released and it must be the first film that I remember having to see more than once at the cinema. It should be my definitive Christmas movie. I wanted nothing more than to be Macaulay Culkin and run around a mansion screaming and fighting off burglars in barbaric ways. But then, in 2003, when I was still just a little boy of 22 years old, I saw Elf.

As a wise elf/man once said, ‘Smiling’s my favourite!’ and there’s nothing that can put a bigger smile on my face at Christmas than Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf. The enthusiasm that the green-suited man-child brings to Christmas preparations is sure to thaw even the iciest humbug’s heart. 

When Buddy, the man raised by elves in the North Pole, arrives in New York after travelling ‘through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then… through the Lincoln Tunnel’, he is searching for his naughty-list-dwelling father, played with grouchy perfection by James Caan. It's up to Buddy to bring some cheer into this miserable New Yorker's life and maybe, just maybe, rescue him from the naughty list.

Despite Santa’s warnings about the city, Buddy’s Christmas spirit can never be tainted. Even though he encounters an ‘angry elf’ in the form of Peter Dinklage’s no-nonsense children’s author and a fake Santa who sits on a ‘throne of lies’ and smells like ‘beef and cheese’, Buddy can still manage to spread infinite Christmas cheer. Who can possibly resist Buddy’s proud and loud exclamation at the arrival of Santa? ‘SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!’

Buddy’s so cool, so full of joy, and so much loved in my house that I even my named my dog after him! And because you need a picture of him, here he is.

The Return of Ron Burgundy and Mick Taylor

Two outdated alpha males are making their way back to the big screen in exciting sequels. One is Ron Burgundy in Anchorman 2 and the other is the dreaded Mick Taylor in Wolf Creek 2. Ron Burgundy may be there to tickle your funny bone but he's as backward as Mick Taylor in his sexist, racist ways, if not quite as frightening. The new trailers for these two films show off the repetition that keeps us comfortable coming back for more from unnecessary but oh so tempting sequels.

Anchorman 2 sees the news team re-assemble in the 80s and completely unable to face the same old problems. Women and ethnic minorities threaten their bone headed supremacy and the team seem to have learned little from their time taking on Christina Applegate's female anchor in the previous film. Brick is still as lovably dumb as ever, Ron as arrogant, Champ probably as closeted and Brian still has plenty of clunky ways to impress the ladies. Let's hope all the jokes don't repeat themselves and that the improvisation has again captured quotable lightning in bottle.

At the other end of the laughs scale is Wolf Creek 2 which promises a bit more spectacle in terms of stunts but almost certainly a distinct lack of laughs. While Mick Taylor can come across as a bit of loveable Aussie rogue, he is anything but. He may be as true blue and fair dinkum as Crocodile Dundee but he's also, as anyone who has seen Wolf Creek will tell you, a sadistic lunatic. The first film was terrifyingly realistic and while the sequel may have lost a bit of the believability, it still looks like it will be a gripping Aussie shocker. Buckle up for the trailer below:

Wolf Creek 2 Trailer



Anchorman 2 International Trailer



Anchorman 2 New Trailer



More trailers from I Love That Film:

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Need for Speed

The LEGO Movie

The Wolf of Wall Street

Man of Steel and The Desolation of Smaug

Recent Publications: Gangnam Style and Prison Movies

I've just got copies of two of my articles through today and thought I would share some pictures. First is my article on the phenomenon that is the Gangnam Style music video. This went viral (in case you hadn't heard) and is now the most watched video on YouTube ever. Not bad for a South Korean pop star who isn't really even singing in English.

The issue of Media Magazine that this article is in was called the 'Reading the Media' issue. The brief said to analyse any piece of media we felt could be of interest and I thought Gangnam Style would make an interesting article. You can subscribe to Media Magazine here but unfortunately I don't think you can buy individual copies.

I'm also writing a couple of articles for the next issue which is 'The Gothic Issue'. I'm writing an article on Universal's classic monster movies and their remakes and also hoping to get another written comparing the two big trends in modern horror: torture porn and found footage. Here is a look at the first page of the Gangnam Style article:

The other article I just had published is in the 'Prison Issue' of Splice Cinema Journal. This article and publication is a bit more on the academic side and my article is called Prison and Punishment, Race and Redemption: Comparing Prison Life in The Shawshank Redemption and American History X... phew even the title is a bit of a mouthful. Splice is published by Auteur who are the publishing house that I am currently writing by Blair Witch Project book for. At least with a title that long I think it sums up exactly what the article is about. You can pick up copies of Splice here.

I also just found out that the previous article I had in Splice on Will Ferrell's sports movies got a nice review over at the Media Education Association. The reviewer Steve Murray very kindly wrote:

'Peter Turner’s essay Mockery, Masculinity and Misogyny: The Sports Movies of Will Ferrell offers a rare opportunity to read a considered academic piece about an iconic American comedy actor who is more than likely to engage the interest of the average teenager sitting in our classrooms. The essay looks in detail at representations in Ferrell’s sports films and would be useful both as a teaching resource and as a starting point for a research project for A2 Film Studies coursework; indeed, this essay would provide invaluable help to students choosing to look at Will Ferrell as a star for WJEC’s annotated catalogue and presentation script.'

 All in all, it has been a happy day. I love seeing what designers are going to do when they publish my writing and it never disappoints.

The LEGO Movie Trailer

Superman and Batman together in one movie at last! It's the LEGO movie. It's got Will Arnett as Batman and all sorts of other superheroes, ninja turtles and popular culture characters popping up in little yellow brick form. Will Ferrel, Morgan Freeman, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks and Liam Neeson are also on voice duties in what promises to be an epic or very small proportions.

It is directed by the guys who gave us Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street so although the trailer is unlikely to make you laugh out loud, there is at least some potential for plenty of silliness to please the kids and witty banter for the adults.

What I'm really sad about is the decision to go with digital animation over stop motion animation. The internet is filled with brilliant (and many not so brilliant) stop motion animations lovingly crafted by people in their bedrooms using the little Lego blocks and figures. However the makers have gone for what must be an easier (correct me if I'm wrong) option of digitally creating the world and characters. I'm sure it will lose of the charm of many amateur efforts in the internet.

I guess they are going for the full Brickbuster effect to maximise the appeal but it's a shame that stop motion isn't the format of choice for The LEGO Movie makers. Either way, let's hope that the film can be as imaginative and fun as the product itself has been for generations of kids since the interlocking blocks first emerged over 60 years ago. Here is the trailer:



More trailers at I Love That Film:


Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues



The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolverine

Pacific Rim

Man of Steel and The Desolation of Smaug

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Brand New Full Trailer

Brick, Champ, Brian and Ron are back, back, back in the Anchorman 2 trailer. Their legend became but a whisper told by the trees apparently and now nine years after the original, they return in a new decade to face the challenges of the 80s. When Ron and the gang start working on a 24 hour news channel, who knows what will happen? Check out the brand new poster and trailer below:

What we do know is Brick finds a kindred spirit in Kristen Wiig's not very bright lady friend and though the trailer doesn't show them; expect cameos from the likes of Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Moving on from the rampant sexism of the seventies, Ron looks like he's found another social group to target. His dim-witted attempts to break down racial barriers at the end of this trailer look set to lose him a few fans in the African American community but will they see beyond the insults to the noble heart beneath that salon quality hair? Only time will tell...



What do you think? Will this match the original for laughs?

Here's the teasers from a while back if you missed them:





More trailers at I Love That Film:



The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolverine

Pacific Rim

Man of Steel and The Desolation of Smaug

Personal Highlights of 2012

2012 was an incredible year for me. Basically a big part of starting this blog was to share some of the cool film related things I had been doing. I was desperate to tell anyone and everyone that I got to ask Danny Boyle a question at a 127 Hours screening organised by Lovefilm at the end of 2010. Since then things have gotten better and better and although I may not be getting paid for my efforts yet, I am living the dream of what I have always wanted to do, writing constantly about films!

My 2011 was very exciting filled with highlights like these but 2012 was even better and below are links to posts about some of the highlights of my year. With 2013 starting with having a chat with Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis on the red carpet of the Flight premiere for my Filmoria premiere report, I hope that things are going to get even more exciting as the year goes on so please join me on the adventure!

If anyone reading this hates those self-indulgent blog posts where people look at their successes or cannibalize their own work instead of writing something new and original then please look no further. This is as much for me as it is for anyone who reads this. I feel like looking back into the past to see how far I've come this year and this will be my hopefully permanent record of what has been achieved.

Anyway here are the highlights of 2012:

Taking my college media students to New York got me all excited and prompted this post on my favourite New York movies.

Two articles published in Media Magazine.

Made it through my first year of blogging in March.

An independent film called One by One that I worked a lot on got a trailer.

In May I got to sit down and have a chat with legendary Oscar winning production designer of Titanic, Peter Lamont.

Andina at Inspired Ground invited me to write my first ever guest post on her blog. I chose to write about Fight Club as the film that changed my life. 

I finally got the scope and aims of my PhD thesis on found footage horror sorted.

My first ever article for Splice Cinema Journal on Documentaries and star directors was published in June.

Write my first article for Filmoria on the use of The Pixies Where is My Mind? at the end of Fight Club. Here is the full article. Had no idea that Filmoria would provide me with such amazing opportunities in the future!

Director of Storage 24, Johannes Roberts came to my college to give a brilliant talk to our students in June.

David Jackson wrote his first post for this blog on why he loves Aliens, the first time I've had a guest writer!

Wrote my first piece for Boolean Flix on Finding the Fun in Found Footage

In July I got married to the love of my life and went on the best honeymoon to Costa Rica anyone could ever ask for.

Got a letter published in Empire Magazine

Had my first article published on Static Mass Emporium on the director Michael Moore. This was the beginning of another great writing adventure and opportunity to work with more talented writers.

Filmoria sent me to interview the directors of Untouchable, Olivier Nackache and Eric Toledano. I had to rush out and buy a recording device that has become an essential tool in my work for Filmoria! It was a nerve wracking but incredible experience.

Took part in my first of many From the Red Carpet film clubs for the film Premium Rush.

Filmoria sent me to a gala screening of Paranormal Activity 4 where I got to interview actress Katie Featherstone.
 
Got a letter published in the 200th edition of Total Film.

I had my radio debut on Amazing Radio talking movies with Ruth Barnes on her breakfast show in November. You can listen to my second appearance here.

I love stats so was very happy for I Love That Film to hit 100,000 page views in December!

Had my second article on Will Ferrell's sports movies published in Splice Cinema Journal.

I decided to keep a record of all my writing at other sites. So here's links to all my Static Mass Emporium writing, Filmoria news, interviews and reviews.

Finally here are the top ten films I watched in 2012.

This year I intend to continue taking all the opportunities I can get and seeking out more ways to get paid for doing what I love. I hope that you will continue to stick with me.

What were your 2012 highlights?

Splice Cinema Journal: Will Ferrell article

I have just received my copy of the Winter 2012 issue of Splice: Studying Contemporary Cinema journal. Volume 6, issue 2 is all about sports films and I was commissioned to write an article about the four sports movies Of Will Ferrell. I titled it Mockery, Masculinity and Misogyny: The Sports Movies of Will Ferrell. It deals with representations of gender in Kicking and Screaming, Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro.

This is the second article I have had published in Splice after my previous article on the recent trend of star documentary directors such as Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock. Below you can see the covers of the two issues that I have been published in and the title pages of the articles I have contributed. I am now off to write my third article for the next issue on two very different prison films from the 90s.

Here is a snippet from the Will Ferrell article:

'Will Ferrell frequently plays characters that are either parodying traditional representations of masculinity and border on misogynist and homophobic or he plays more progressive, sensitive and gentle characters that provide a much more modern representation of men and their role in contemporary society.  Whether his characters are traditional or progressive, the films are comedies and therefore there is a great deal of parody and irony involved in the representation of men.  It is also interesting to examine the role of women and homosexuals and references to these social groups in the films as this can lead to further justification of the films as either misogynist or more progressive texts.' 

Splice is published by Auteur so if you want to subscribe, you can find their website here. For at least the next six months I will be in the process of writing my first book for Auteur to be published as part of the Devil's Advocate series. For Christmas, I received Benjamin Poole's book on Saw which I am looking forward to reading.

Delayed Movies of May

It's the 5th of June already and I haven't posted my list of movies that I watched in May.  The reason for my tardiness is that I had a horrible bout of Gastroenteritis and then fortunately that went away just in the nick of time for a weekend of camping out in the miserable English weather for my stag-do!  It is the Queen's Jubilee here which means I have two extra days of recovery.  God Save the Queen!

Normally I split my monthly post into two seperate lists of the worst films and the best films of the month.  But due to starting season 4 of Dexter, I only got through fourteen films in May.  Without further ado, here is my ranking:

14. Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes (Jude Gerard Prest, 2011)

Found footage style fake documentary about a possessed girl in 70s Germany.  Documentary crew and medical team spend 16 days with priests investigating what is behind the young girl’s ‘fits’.

Fuck all to like about this film.  Unoriginal, ugly, boring and not even remotely scary.  Tries to steal every great moment from The Exorcist and fails to make a single one work:  Girl pisses on floor.  Spider walks down stairs.  Forces priest into sexual act.  Makes bed shake.  All captured by the cameras of the crew present at the exorcism.  None of it works.  Absolutely dreadful.  Appalling accents, acting and staging.  One of the worst films I’ve ever seen.  I can’t even write proper sentences about it.

13. Kicking and Screaming (Jesse Dylan, 2005)

The one where Will Ferrell coaches a kids' soccer team.  Loved it anytime Ferrell is let off the leash, especially on coffee.  Much better than Ferrell’s basketball movie Semi-Pro and probably equal with Blades of Glory, but no competition with Talladega Nights.

12. American Reunion (Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, 2012)

While it’s great to see the guys again, the brief cameos from the rest of the crowd and most of all, Jim’s Dad and Stifler’s Mum getting high together, the script is lazy and misogynistic and just not that funny.

11. Flash Point (Wilson Yip, 2007)

This is totally worth while watching for the final fight scene.  The rest is pretty formulaic and unmemorable.  Just standard cop action thriller stuff.  But when the guns get emptied and the hero and villain have only their hands and feet to fight with, this is exceptional stuff!

10. Faster (George Tillman Jr., 2011)

This had pretty close to fascinating characters for an action flick.  However there is a bit of a lack of decent action considering the title and the set up.  Fails to get the pulse racing but spends plenty of time introducing a bunch of quite weird and definitely interesting characters.

9. The Ref (Ted Demme, 1994)

Denis Leary is a bit subdued here but it’s unsurprising considering the cast of characters he is surrounded by.  Criminal on the run takes dysfunctional family hostage and chaos ensues.  Pretty forgettable unfortunately since I'd been kind of waiting to see this ever since it first came out in '94.

8. Fright Night (Craig Gillespie, 2011)

Fun take on vampires with very likeable turns from Colin Farell, David Tenant and Anton Yelchin.  It’s not scary, just mildly entertaining. 

7. Avengers Assemble (Joss Whedon, 2012)

Marvel’s Avengers team up to take out Loki and his army before they enslave the Earth.

The iconic characters get dressed up for a spectacular but hardly pulse pounding action climax.  Ruffalo steals the show as the latest incarnation of Bruce Banner.  It’s all a bit silly and slow to start and lacking in any sense of tension as we all know all these characters will survive and how the film will end.  Oh except one character that I personally couldn’t care less about.

6. Following (Christopher Nolan, 1999)

Christopher Nolan’s feature debut about a man who likes to follow people and becomes embroiled with a thief.

It is a pleasure to see lots of Nolan’s trademarks in their embryonic phase;  a mysterious thief called Cobb, a non-linear, confusing but rewarding narrative puzzle and a Batman symbol on a character’s door.  On the other hand, it did have a bit of dodgy acting though.

5. TrollHunter (Andre Ovredal, 2011)

Documentary team find out there is much more than just bears that need hunting in Norway.

Finally a found footage movie that’s not shit!  The camera operators aren’t completely hopeless so the cinematography is actually quite nice in places.  Great end and a unique original story well told with some cool special effects and use of night vision.  The titular troll hunter is an interesting anti-hero with a bit of depth to the character.  It’s more comedy than horror but unfortunately it’s not remotely scary and it’s not that funny.

 

4. The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)

 This 70s set family drama revolves around sex, desire, sadness and shame.  A fantastic ensemble get some interesting if not overly memorable characters to dig into but it all takes a little turn for the melodramatic come the end.  Still, it’s very well acted and has some brilliantly awkward moments.

3. Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper, 2009)

This tale of a country and western singer living life at the bottom of a bottle is worth catching for a heartbreaking and brilliant performance from Jeff Bridges alone.  Maggie Gyllenhaal also excels as the love interest in a simple, straight forward but perfectly acted piece of character-driven cinema.

2. Into the Abyss (Werner Herzog, 2012)

Documentary on death row that explores the crime, the victims’ families and the killers themselves.  I loved Herzog’s voice, accent and deeply odd questioning of his subjects.  Despite Herzog proclaiming at the start that he is anti-death penalty, this is not at all preachy and completely leaves the viewer able to make up their own mind.

Didn’t love how it occasionally feels as though Herzog is deliberately and clearly pushing his subjects to provoke emotional responses.

1. This Film is Not Yet Rated (Kirby Dick, 2006)

This documentary on film censorship in America investigates the strange secrecy that surrounds the MPAA.  It explores the violence vs sex debate and whether the MPAA is actually homophobic and out-of-touch with public views.  It might go a little far in the investigative side of things, bordering on invasion of privacy but nevertheless it is an important and thoughtful documentary that made me very grateful to live in England where the BBFC are at least very open about their policy and decisions. 

What did you love/hate this month?  What do you think of any of these films?  Thanks for stopping by!