Predicted Rating: 1 Star
Directed by: Adam McKay (The Campaign). Starring: Will Ferrell (Old School), Steve Carell (The Office), and Paul Rudd (Role Models)
After the events of the first film, legendary news anchor Ron Burgandy (Ferrell) is hosting the weekend news cast with his wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). They find out that the weekday reader is retiring so Ron assumes that he is getting the job, however, only his wife gets the gig. Ron then goes into a deep spiral of depression but is saved when he finds out a new 24-hour news channel. NEWS TEAM ASSEMBLE!
As you can see from my predicted rating, I expected this movie to be terrible. One reason for this is because the reason why the first film was so good was because it never tried. The jokes flowed smoothly, it never took itself seriously and became one of the most quotable movies ever. Anchorman could quite possibly be the most popular cult film ever. I feared for part 2 because I thought it would try too hard not to try hard. This makes the film feel like it is full of itself. A good example of of this is How I Met Your Mother, it realised it was popular and now struts around like it is the king of the roost. I think Anchorman 2 does the exact opposite of this. The jokes follow the same tone as in the first one but it doesn't feel like it is saying look, we made these jokes before, how good are we, which is the opposite of HIMYM, which has told the same 5 jokes for 197 episodes. Anchorman 2 continues the non stop fun because it again essentially has no story. It doesn't try to thrust on you a ridiculous story but just tells the joke and plays out more like a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Another reason why I thought this film would be awful was because really, has there been a good comedy sequel? I am going to sound like Jigsaw here but let's play a game, name a good comedy sequel... *crickets chirping. The only one I could think of was Home Alone 2 and even that is stretching it. There have been many classic comedies such as Ghostbusters, Men In Black and the Hangover that have absolutely terrible sequels. I think Anchorman 2 bucks this trend because it is thoroughly entertaining and a downright hoot.
A round of applause everyone for Kristen Wiig because she managed to move a few spots up on my favourite actresses list *woooo yeah. Well it is hard to move down from dead last but hey it is a step in the right direction. She has now leapfrogged Kat Dennings, Kathryn Heigl and Meryl Streep. I am in no way forgiving her for Bridesmaids but she was actually pretty funny in this film as the love interest of Steve Carell's Brick Tambland. I was actually thinking after the film, I wish there was more Kristen Wiig in this film, words I thought were impossible for me to say. Brick is really the glue in this film. He delivers the one liners at the optimum time and brings in by far the most laughs. As a result, it is only fitting that he gets a love interest and what better love interest that one who is essentially the female version of himself. Wiig Plays this role perfectly, maybe she is a decent actor, she just needs to be given a decent character.
Overall: In no way a good film but it is thoroughly entertaining, which is what you want in a mindless comedy. 4 Stars
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