Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) Movie Review

ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

After the surprising success that the original Anchorman had, it was almost inevitable that a sequel was going to be made. And boy am I glad that it did. 

After being his entire news team was fired from his news channel, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) begins working as a trainer for Sea World. Unsurprisingly, he gets fired from this occupation as well and gets approached by a man named Freddie Shapp (Dylan Baker) who offers Ron a chance at redemption as a newscaster for a 24-hour news channel. Reluctantly agreeing, Ron decides to "get the band back together" to begin their new careers. To be completely honest, I thought that this movie was going to be completely blind in terms of its story as it seemed from the trailers to be just a funny movie, one that doesn't concentrate at all on its overbearing plot. However, much like the previous film, I felt that the writers actually did put some thought into the plot as at the beginning, it starts in a very simple style though towards the final act of the story, alot of stuff begins occurring. Now usually, this would make the film too overcrowded however in this particular instance, it somehow works perfectly as by the time the end credits are rolling, you leave feeling that they actually told a complete and ridiculous. So to be honest, I must say that the film had a really intriguing and just hilarious story and really did play its cards at the right times and did it flawlessly. 

Still of Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, David Koechner
and Steve Carell

Now since this film is, of course, a comedy, I more or less must judge the movie on its overall hilarity factor. And I must say, I thought this movie was absolutely hilarious. Almost every single scene in this movie, whether it had an overlaying joke or just a simple one liner, made me literally laugh out loud. Most of this comedy of course comes from the four leading men in the movie, who were all hilarious in their own way. Whether it be Ron Burgundy's pride, Brian Fantana's (Paul Rudd) obsession with sex, Brick Tamland's (Steve Carell) way of being...well..Brick or a new character in the series, Jack Lime's (James Marsden) cockiness, I felt that each actor brought something new to either the movie or their character's personality. Now one of the things I despise most about comedy in general is the overuse of toilet humour and jokes literally about someone farting or shitting. Luckily, while watching this movie, it seemed that the film could still be funny without the use of the human feces, which I found extremely impressive. Not that I'm saying that toilet humour is a good thing, because it never is, but it's rare to see a mainstream film like this be successful without making reference to farts or feces. Speaking of shit, let's discuss some of the things that I did not enjoy about the film. Like any movie, there are minor problems that cannot be simply fixed like lack of ideas or certain angles, but there is one problem that seemed to not really bother, but rather stick out to me as being the only problem with the film. And that is that the film seemed a little unfocused at times as Jack Lime is supposed to be the main antagonist in the film, though he is only there for the first half, then he just kind of disappears for a while then for a tiny bit pops up at the finale of the film, which bothered me because I really liked that character as he seemed to be Ron's polar opposite in terms of personality. 

Still of James Marsden and his news team

As for the acting, I felt that the film had an extremely strong comedy ensemble much like the last film. With Will Ferrell once again bringing his iconic Ron Burgundy to life again, it is hilarious to see what antics he gets himself into and his very passive aggressive style of acting. Though Will Ferrell is the main star, I felt that the stand out in the four was actually Paul Rudd as I felt that he brought an extreme amount of charisma that, at least for me, was missing from the previous film. In this instalment, he is a drug and sex addicted man who somehow manages to compile a list of the Top 40 Best Vaginas in the Last Decade. This is but one example that proves why he is my favourite in the group. Well that and Paul Rudd is one of my favourite comedians but that's beyond the point. David Koechner as Champ Kind I felt, while hilarious, was the weakest of the four. And to be honest, that isn't a bad thing as when you're up against actors like Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, it's incredibly hard to stand out. Speaking of Steve Carell, I felt that his iconic character was brought justice once again as just everything he says makes me laugh, and even when Steve laughs, it just makes me laugh for some strange reason. Maybe it's just that stupid face he makes that triggers me to laugh, I'm not entirely sure but he was hilarious nonetheless. Others who were good in the film include James Marsden, Christina Applegate as Veronica Corningstone and although he was only in it for a short amount of time, Harrison Ford as Mack Tannen. Overall, I felt that the acting was really good and once again showcased these actor's hilarious talent.

Still of Christina Applegate, Meagan Good and
Will Ferrell

Overall, while some people may disagree with me, I felt that Anchorman 2 was better than its predecessor and is easily one of the best comedies of the year. With a hilarious script, impeccable performances and an ending that out-dos the firsts in every way, Anchorman 2 can be described in one simple word, surprising. 

OVERALL: 8.2/10