If on first viewing back in 2004 someone would have told you that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was going to be one of the most loved comedies of all time and certainly the most quotable film of the last ten years, you probably would have questioned them about it. How could a film about an Anchorman who’s best friend was a dog be one of the funniest films of all time?
Well, quite simply, no one was prepared for the success of Anchorman, not even the cast and writers themselves. The film did moderately well at the box office, earning about 90 million worldwide, but the real success came afterwards with the release on DVD. Suddenly everyone was doing the no pants dance, loved lamps and were having intelligent conversations with their dogs.
Will Ferrell, unfortunately, wasn’t the biggest fan of sequels. Once a project was done, it was entirely done but the cast and crew couldn’t get past the fact that people could never stop talking about Anchorman. Soon, there were discussions about the follow-up project and then, lo and behold, we had the eagerly awaited sequel.
Anchorman 2 begins a few years after the first instalment. Burgundy and Corningstone are now married with a child and are lead co-anchors for the Channel 4 news. However, the main anchor for nightly news, none other than Mack Harken (Harrison Ford) has decided that he is going to step down from his position and picks Corningstone to be his successor.
Ron is distraught and instead of supporting his wife’s decision, he tells her that she must choose between him and the job. When Veronica chooses her career, Ron ends up in a downward spiral, drinking, working at Seaworld, eventually deciding to take his own life. However, at the end of his tether, Ron is offered a new opportunity, a slot on a new 24 hour news channel where he must make something out of the graveyard shift. Before he commits to the new project however, Ron must track down his ultimate news team.
Let us get this straight, Anchorman is never going to live up to your expectations, not for any bad reasons, just purely because you will not know where they will take this and we can guarantee you, you are in for a few shocks; this is nothing like you expect but that’s not a bad thing. The second instalment of Anchorman is even more bizarre than the first, perhaps with less examples of obvious quotes but that will take time. No one thought they would screaming “I want to be on you” to random people you didn’t know.
Secondly, it is just wonderful to see these characters that everyone so loves back on the big screen. Ferrell is literally a comic genius, Rudd is perfect as usual as Fantana, Carell is simply brilliant as the awkward Brick, Applegate is thoroughly excellent as Corningstone. The support characters are just as fantastic, Baxter is back and that epic fight scene is back in the sequel with far more familiar faces. Arguably one of the best performances is from the brilliant Kristen Wiig as Chani, Brick’s new love interest.
Although it seems initially that the sequel won’t be as funny as the first, we can almost guarantee that several quotes will be in use by January at the very latest. The cast themselves assured us that they are already using “I’m a Paul Rudd kind of guy” or “I’m a Will Ferrell kind of guy”.
Plenty of laughs with some old familiar faces, Anchorman 2 is certainly worth your money.
