Film Review: ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’ Defies Pattern of Comedy Sequels

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Comedy sequels are SO rarely worthwhile. Most good comedy is dependent on being fresh, new, and unpredictable – words not commonly uses to describe sequels. For every “Wayne’s World 2,” there are a dozen films of the caliber of “Ghostbusters 2,” “Arthur 2,” and “Caddyshack II” – movies that are so bad that they almost diminish the legacy of their predecessors. And so I entered the long-awaited and over-promoted return of Ron Burgundy in Adam McKay’s “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” with a deep degree of trepidation…that disappeared almost immediately. “Anchorman 2” is funny, sometimes very much so, and justifies the wait for a new adventure for cinema’s favorite newscaster.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) are at the top of their profession, anchoring in New York City and living life in fabulous love. It all falls apart when their boss Mack Harken (Harrison Ford) breaks them up, pushing Corningstone to the Nightly News and sending Burgundy off the rails. It’s not long before he’s drunkenly MC-ing a dolphin show at Sea World, seemingly destined for obscurity. Enter one of the most important TV developments in the history of the form – 24-hour news.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” in our reviews section.

McKay and Ferrell cleverly build “The Legend Continues” on the fact that CNN actually created their brand by going to local newscasters from markets around the country and bringing them aboard their team. And so Ron Burgundy is approached to take the graveyard shift at GNN, the fictional version of the cable news network. He gets the band back together by tracking down Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), but they’re still mocked by the more handsome, TV-friendly anchors like Jack Lime (James Marsden). Can Ron Burgundy reclaim his throne? And how will the VERY not politically-correct Burgundy deal with his gorgeous, African-American boss (Meagan Good).

Some might say that the plot for “Anchorman 2” is merely a structure on which to place Ferrell and McKay’s unique brand of humor but the writers actually do have deeper goals than most comedy sequel writers. Whereas it would have been remarkably easy just to recycle the setting and jokes from the first film, McKay & Ferrell use the birth of 24-hour news to comment on how it was a development that diminished the overall quality of the form. News became obsessed with grabbing attention more than delivering information and it’s a problem that continues to this day.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” review.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Photo credit: Paramount