ANCHORMAN 2

First of all I should admit that I am really not an Anchorman fan. I just find the entire film stupid nonsense  - and not the funny kind. For me, the success of Anchorman is one of the many great wonders of the movie world, way up there with the likes of how has Leonardo DiCaprio not won an Oscar yet and why did everyone go so crazy for Silver Linings Playbook? In short, me reviewing Anchorman 2 is like getting a heavy metal fan to review a Justin Bieber album - I am not the film's target audience so I probably can't speak for the majority, nevertheless, here is what I made of it.

Anchorman 2 follows in the same vein as the original. We re-join the character of Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) in the 1980s, he and his now-wife Veronica (Christina Applegate) are a successful news team partnership and they have a young son together. However, following Veronica’s promotion the couple split up and Ron is approached by GNN to anchor part of a revolutionary 24 hour news channel with the help of his old friends from San Diego Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and Champ Kind (David Koechner).

The gags are just as stupid as they are in the original Anchorman

In comparison to the first film, the storyline is much stronger; it is fresh with much more depth and the narrative has many different layers –Ron’s relationship with his estranged wife, the desperate bid to get ratings on GNN, and competition with other news anchors alongside a romantic subplot for everybody’s favourite dunce, Brick, are all prominent themes throughout. 

However, some of the characters feel a bit stale and aren't included as much as they should have been. Similarly to The Hangover franchise's Alan-centric third film, Anchorman 2 has seen who the favourite characters are and rely heavily on them to bring the laughs to the point of exhaustion. Brick and Ron were the two favourites from the original film and as a result it seems as though director Adam McKay couldn’t be bothered with Rudd and Koechner’s characters, meaning that much of the time Brick is massively overexposed and they are awkward spare parts on the sidelines - much to the film’s detriment.

Brick and Ron are great sources of comedy, if you like that kind of thing, but Brian Fantana was especially brilliant for comedic timing and together with Champ Kind they delivered a more understated level of humour which is sorely missed in the sequel. When Anchorman 2 started the laughs from the audience were coming thick and fast but after 90 minutes of Brick being simple-minded and Ron being casually sexist and racist the laughs massively faltered and it was easy to see that the audience were getting restless without Brian and Champ being utilised to balance the humour out.

A rare moment of comedy

A refreshing lift to the stagnating characters and perhaps one of the film's saving graces comes from the star-studded list of cameo appearances. Alongside the endless stream of gags and chaos, casual prejudice and tasteless jokes familiar faces from Kanye West to Jim Carrey are cropping up – almost turning the film into a game of ‘spot the celebrity’. It seems as though everybody wanted a brief slice of the action, and with the original film’s unwavering popularity, who could blame them for wanting their face in the sequel?

All in all, the Anchorman humour is most definitely not for everyone. However, as somebody who found the original almost painful to watch this sequel is a vast improvement. There are a few universal moments of brilliance, such as the four men smoking crack live on air, but there are also painfully awkward moments that are gratuitous and fall flat, see Ron Burgundy's meal with his black girlfriend's family where he tries to 'speak black' and insults the entire African-American community. 

If you aren't a fan of the original then avoid this one at all costs as there really isn't much for you here.  The humour is just as silly and patronising and at an extra 30 minutes longer than the original it starts to drag and the characters become overbearing. At the end of the day the Anchorman franchise will never be the making of a cinematic masterpiece,  but it knows its audience and panders to their tastes - no matter what the critics may think, fans will love it and that is all that really matters!

★★☆☆☆

Anchorman 2 is released nationwide on the 18th of December 2013!

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Love,