Movie Review Repost -- Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2014)

Once again I don't have anything new to show you this week. You know what that means: a repost of an earlier review I wrote during my Facebook days. This week let's take a look back at Anchorman 2. This movie was brilliant. I loved it then and I love it now. And yes, I still think it's better than the original.

  Happy belated New Year, and what better way to start it than with Anchorman 2, the long-awaited sequel to one of Will Ferrell's most beloved comedies.

  Anchorman 2 takes place in the 1980's, several years after the events of the first film. Ron Burgundy and his wife Veronica Corningstone are both big name co-anchors in New York City, but when only Veronica is promoted to nightly news Ron becomes jealous and leaves her and their son Walter. It's now up to Ron to reassemble his old news team – Champ, Brian, and Brick – in order to help launch the world's first 24 hour news network.

  Anchorman 2 retains the cast of the previous film and uses them to great effect. The news crew guys are all great improv comedians. There are even a few jokes from the first film that are brought back with a new twist, like Brian's cologne cabinet and the joyously zany news crew brawl. Admittedly there are a few jokes that fall flat but they don't by any means ruin the scene. This movie is actually two hours long, but it never feels like it's dragging on for too long. Even the comparatively slow parts are still entertaining.

  Perhaps the biggest difference between this film and the first is that the plot in Anchorman 2 seems way busier. Both films had plots that were all over the place, but the sequel has more subplots and a longer running time (by about half an hour). This is a good thing because it gives Anchorman 2 the opportunity to tell a wider variety of jokes. This time we get race jokes and a more satirical commentary on modern TV news reporting. As with the first film there's a subplot about Ron having a rivalry with another prominent news anchor, but it's much more developed here than in the last one (basically just tacked on there). Perhaps most notably, Brick gets an expanded role and there also various subplots involving Ron's new boss Linda, censorship by the network's owner, and Ron's relationship with his son.

  In short, it feels as if there's more at stake: that there's more going on. And it's for this reason that I think Anchorman 2 is better than its predecessor. It may not be quite as quotable, but it is funnier and more enjoyable. If you liked the first movie (or any other Will Ferrell movies) then this one is definitely worth a watch.

Rating: three and a half stars out of five.