Some sequels are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them, and still others are simply handed the impossible task of living up to the indescribably brilliance of its predecessor. “Anchorman: The Legend Continues” is one of those movies.
The original, “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” is completely and utterly ridiculous, offensive, and it pulls it off brilliantly. As a movie buff, I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s on my list of favorites. The best way I can describe is, “just the right amount of stupid,” and I mean that in a nice way.
Its sequel, tries its darndest, but just can’t quite figure out exactly what story it wants to tell. We meet up with Ron (Will Ferrell) and Veronica (Christina Applegate) again several years later. They’re married, anchoring a national broadcast out of New York and raising their son as only they could.
When their boss Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford) promotes Veronica to the nightly news anchor desk leaving Ron in the dust, Ron loses it and through a series of events is invited to join the first 24-hour news channel.
First, he must re-assemble the world’s greatest news team—Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner), Brick Tamland (Steve Carell).
Prepared to take 24-hour news by storm, the news team is tripped up at every turn by a distrustful station manager (Meagan Good) (who also happens to be a black woman—a fact that Mr. Burgundy can’t get past, of course), a dashing competitor (James Marsden), and a money hungry boss from Down Under looking to protect his own agenda (Josh Lawson)… not to mention a fractured plot.
That is, until they find their niche, they won’t tell the news, they’ll tell the news people want to hear—a bi-racial romance, blinding accident, faulty planes, sight restoring surgery, a news team rumble, and a rehabbed shark later, all is well again for Mr. Burgundy.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty that’s funny about this movie, but it’s just too much. No amount of humor can make up for an indecisive story arc. Not to mention, that there’s very little direct reference to the first movie, making this movie feel completely disconnected from the original.
For example, “Stay classy San Diego,” was the catch phrase of the first movie. It’s barely alluded to in the sequel. I know you don’t want to beat a dead horse, but this horse is still alive and kicking and its fans were thrilled about a sequel. You can pay homage to the original without regurgitating it. It’s not easy, but it can be done.
I have no doubt that the target audience for this movie will be more than satisfied, but you’re fringe fans are less than pleased Mr. Burgundy. It’s not that I wasn’t entertained, it’s that I wasn’t entertained enough to distract me from making a mental list of all the things that could have made it better. It’s a horrible habit, and I do it for all movies to be fair, but if I can refrain until after the credits are rolling, that’s a good sign.
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…bi-daily smile…
