The original Anchorman movie hit the screen in 2004 and threw the audience into a male dominated 1970's world. Set in the world of local broadcast news, Ron Burgundy, played by Will Ferrell, and his all male team seem to have the world at their feet, parading around in pure seventies style. The original was a huge hit, becoming a cult classic and you would hear quotes from the movie everywhere. The viewer is treated to a constant flood of absurd quotes, total silliness and jokes that shock you into immediate laughter, due to the fact that most of these jokes should have stayed in the seventies.
Anchorman 2 looked like it may be just a cash grab, riding on the success of the first movie as so many sequels do. But this is a sequel that takes the original concept of hitting the audience with absurd borderline jokes and takes it to a whole new level. In particular, the scene where Ron meets his new interracial girlfriends family is in the first instance shocking, but could only be accepted and delivered in an openly funny way by the legend that is Ron Burgundy, who is so absurd that the scene finishes up working by reversing the joke back to him. There is a large chunk of the film where the viewer is taken into an almost dreamlike period, were Ron loses his eyesight, lives in a light house and hand rears a shark. These scenes in the movie really take Anchorman 2 to places that you could never have expected and truly make this sequel an enhanced version of the original – pulling just as many laugh out loud moments as the original.
It is not just Ron who pulls in the laughs in this movie, the stand out character who manages to pull off a better performance than the original is Brick Tamland, the weatherman played brilliantly by Steve Carrell. Brick is unbelievably stupid and he is first seen in Anchorman 2 at his own funeral – giving his own eulogy. Brick finds a love interest in a character played by Kirsten Wiig and the performances by both actors are a pleasure to watch and just outrageously funny. The other cast members Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Christina Applegate all bring enhancements to their characters. This is a team who look like they are genuinely enjoying themselves and this chemistry is essential for this comedy to work in the way that it does.
There is a heap of cameo roles with the likes of Harrison Ford, Will Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Carrey, John C Reilly, Liam Neeson, Kanye West and Drake all appearing in a crazy fight scene that includes Harrison Ford's character turning into a were-hyena. Anchorman 2 is two hours of outrageous fun that brings plenty of laughs all the way through – just none stop fun. Accept it for what it is and give it a go.
Update: Unfortunately, Anchorman 2 is no longer available on Netflix. You can rent it on Amazon but it is not included with the Prime subscription.
