Movie Review: 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues'

***** out of 5
119 minutes
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, drug use, language and comic violence
Paramount Pictures

Article first published as Movie Review: 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues' on Blogcritics.

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you’re doing and listen. The most important event in comedy sequel history has happened. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues delivers the goods. After nine years and as many rumors as any other film Adam McKay and company are back and as spectacularly hilarious as ever. I remember the first time I saw Anchorman and knew it would change the face of comedy, as we know it. From there it was a snowball effect as Apatow Productions began its dominance and it’s been a pleasure to watch.
Catching up with Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) in New York City, head anchor Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford) is about to pass the torch, but instead of both becoming prime time anchors, Mack hands things over to Veronica and fires Ron. Veronica is beside herself over the fact that Ron doesn’t support her decision and he gives her an ultimatum. Six months later, Ron has moved on to hosting the dolphin show back in San Diego at Sea World and is sought out to join GNN (Global News Network) — the first 24 hour news source — in New York. Ron has to get the team back together and we get to see where Champ Kind (David Koechner), Brian Fontana (Paul Rudd), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) are now.

With Ron back in New York, he thinks he can win back Veronica and be there for their seven-year-old son Walter (Judah Nelson). At the station, Ron meets his arch nemesis Jack Lime (James Marsden) and deals with racial diversity in the form of his new boss and lover, Linda Jackson (Meagan Good). Ron is determined to beat Jack’s ratings even with Jack in the prime time slot while Ron and his team get sentenced to the graveyard shift. But leave it to Ron to figure out that they should tell the people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. High-speed car chases and on-set smoke cracking are just the tip of the iceberg, and when the finale finally arrives, let’s just say things escalate quickly.

Surprises, one-liners, a shark fight, and more cameos than a Muppets movie culminate with a manic level of insanity that cranks the comedy up to 11. I laughed till I cried and couldn’t be happier with Anchorman 2. I was worried that maybe they took so long with the sequel because they didn’t have anything worthwhile up their sleeve. But have no worries, the magic is back and this is every bit as quotable as the original Anchorman. Brick even gets a love interest in Chani (Kristen Wiig) who is just as clueless and feeble-minded and just as hilarious.

There’s far more going on here than just getting old friends back together to slap something up on screen (I’m looking at you Grown Ups 2), and McKay and Ferrell never lose sight of their satire taking on media saturation with brilliant audacity. Hopefully this will be the success it deserves to be and maybe even get Paramount Pictures to move forward with the rumored Zoolander sequel we fans want as well. For now, at least Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues proves itself to be the year’s funniest movie and exceeds expectations on every level.

Photos courtesy Paramount Pictures