Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

With the best of luck a comedy sequel of recent release will glide past cinemas with little critical damage and the respect of its die-hard fan base still intact, however, with recent examples such as ‘the Hangover’ showing, sometimes they don’t fare so well. With the sequel to 2004’s hit comedy, and now cult classic, Anchorman, many were concerned that it would be a similar cash grab but with the whole cast and crew returning the result is a very different story; with consistent wit and intelligence throughout

Anchorman 2: The legend continues, is one of the biggest surprises of the year.

Alike the first film Anchorman 2 has little to boast about in the plot department with the story merely acting as a thin springboard on which to create the comedic moments. After conquering San-Diego Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) travels with his news team to New York to take 24 hour news by storm. Perhaps being the most significant issue of the film, the plot never really goes anywhere, for the majority of the time feeling much like a television sketch show with irrelevant joke after another. This is never really a major issue however as the joy of seeing the cohesive characters once more is enough to keep you entertained for potentially hours. Will Ferrell, most poignantly, reminds audiences of his absolute dominative screen presence and comedic timing, which has failed to deteriorate over the years. The same can be said for his fellow actors and news team in the film, consisting of Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner, who each reprise their roles from the original film with enthusiasm and wit. Never truly pandering towards one type of comedy, Anchorman 2 instead dips its toes into various forms, doing so very effectively with the puerile humour of Carell as well as the more intelligent jokes from the films social commentary being combined fantastically for ultimate audience satisfaction. This commentary appears towards the end of the film, criticising the entertainment value which the news holds today, never feeling forced or out of place, this theme slots in perfectly both to the films narrative as well as its social context, making a very clever and humorous link to the state of today’s news. Other pop culture references don’t fare as well; with many falling flat as the celebrity references of the 70’s fly by unnoticed to today’s young, modern audience.

Despite Anchorman 2’s lack of plot and narrative drive, it still remains to be a very funny addition to, what will surely be the growing franchise. As with all comedy sequels, Director Adam Mckay could’ve sat back and relaxed with the knowledge that the first films success would carry the sequel however instead he’s, quite admirably, exerted a lot of time and effort to create an brilliantly crafted script which debatably results in being even funnier than its predecessor.

8/10- Knowingly messy and disjointed Anchorman 2 focuses on comedy and delivers in spades being by far the funniest film of the year.

Calum Russell