Although Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy had a quietly warm reception back in 2004, in the intervening decade it has grown into a cult favorite, with its ridiculous dialogue even spawning special “quote-along” events at indie cinemas.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues kicks off several years after the first film, with Veronica (Christina Applegate) and Ron (Will Ferrell ) happily married with a son, and working as anchors at a national station. However, Ron’s various professional issues, including his continued inability to appropriately interpret a teleprompter, are causing him problems.
After separating from Veronica and initially vowing to never read the news again, Ron is tempted back to “GNN”, the first 24 hour news network, moving to New York with the news team having managed to lure them away from their post Channel 4 news team lives.
Again the underdog in the huge new pool of newsmen, scouted at a regional level, Ron must prove his worth in the viewing polls, and with his new boss.
Last time his issue was with a professional woman, this time it’s a professional black woman! Scandal. Ron’s crack-smoking, car-chasing antics seem to be a concern, but he is changing the face of American news!
The narrative feels rather underdeveloped, which seems like an odd expectation from such an absurd comedy, but the CNN satire aspect could have been taken further to give a little more depth to the almost two-hour long film’s fairly shallow plot. But then again, it’s Anchorman.
The Legend Continues is less instantly quoteable than the original, but makes up for it in other ways; a ballad about a shark being a particular highlight. The bonkers celebrity cameos, whilst inevitable, still offer some great surprises and had the whole screening in uproarious laughter.
However, it is Steve Carell’s Brick that stands out as the true star. His blossoming courtship with Kristen Wiig (doing her best Miranda July impression) is hilarious and yet somehow romantically poignant. Brick is even more gloriously stupid than before and steals every scene he is in.
If you love the first Anchorman film, you will love the second. And don’t worry, the jazz flute is back.
Released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 18 December 2013.
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