Review - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), PG-13, 119 minutes - Over the years, Will Ferrell's off the wall, over the top style of comedy has proven very popular.  One of his most successful films was 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and it was only a matter of time before a sequel came to fruition.  After a couple of years of speculation and then this past year of teasers and trailers, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was finally unleashed on the public last weekend.  In my opinion, it lived up to expectations...for the most part.

Anchorman 2 picks up after the events of The Legend of Ron Burgundy.  He and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) have gotten married and have a young son named Walter (Judah Nelson).  Veronica gets a very prestigious promotion at work becoming the first prime time female news anchor.  At the same time, Ron gets fired.  He's then asked to join a fledgling 24 hour news station as their late late night (or is that early early morning?) anchor.  He rounds up his old news team from San Diego - Champ Kind (David Koechner), Brian Fontana (Paul Rudd), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) - and then variations on many of the themes from Anchorman play out as Ron strives to rise to the top of the national news anchor heap.

Clearly Ferrell's sense of humor isn't for everyone.  I'm operating under the assumption that if you don't like him or his work that you wouldn't have gotten this far.  Even though it rehashes a number of sketch ideas from the first Anchorman, The Legend Continues has its own fair share of laugh out loud moments.  Many are of the ridiculous, harmless variety but others could be perceived as offensive to some (but knowing this group's work, is that really that surprising?).  There were a couple of scenes that probably weren't necessary and seemed to drag the film out, but all in all Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is good for some laughs and is a nice lighthearted escape this holiday season.












*****SPOILERS*****

- Of the 'repeat' scenes in The Legend Continues, I really enjoyed the news anchor gang war scene.  The number of cameos was crazy and the inclusion of the overly polite Canadian news team led by Jim Carrey and Marion Cotillard and the team from the history channel including John C. Reilly (the Ghost of Stonewall Jackson) and a Minotaur was hilarious.

- Including Kristen Wiig as Chani, a female equivalent of Brick was a nice addition to the cast of characters.

- Other small roles/cameos include: Harrison Ford, James Marsden, Meagan Good, Greg Kinnear, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kirsten Dunst, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Liam Neeson, Will Smith, Vince Vaughan, Kanye West, and Fred Willard.

- I felt like the 'blind man living in a lighthouse' turn in the story was a weaker rehash of the story line in Ferrell's Talladega Nights when Ricky Bobby thinks he's lost all feeling in his legs.  Maybe it just felt more out of place than the other bits that were rehashed because it came from a different movie and not the first Anchorman.  In any event, it bogged down the movie for me.  But in the end, it set up the scene in which Ron gets attacked by the shark that opens the film so I guess it had its uses.

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