But Did It Need to Continue?

I’ve gotten through two Anchorman films so far (both the original movie and the alternate recut) and I have to admit that, even now, I’m still not a big Anchorman fan. It’s not that I think the films are completely devoid of charms – each has a few funny moments that I’m certainly going to remember for a while – but the basic schtick of the films just isn’t my kind of funny. Ron Burgundy (as played by Will Ferrell) is a giant man baby who is never going to grow or change, and there’s only so long I can pay attention to his whiny, egotistical ways before I find it all super off-putting. Ferrell can act, but it seems like most of the time he’d rather play some variant of this character in all his films, and I simply can’t stand it.

I did have some hope at the end of each of those films that Ron Burgundy would move forward a slightly better (and, by extension, more watchable) man, since both cuts of the original film end with Ron, in some way, learning to move beyond his ego and accept that things change. In one he realizes he loves Veronica (Christina Applegate) and that she’s better at being an anchor than he is. In the other cut he not only realizes this, but passes up the biggest opportunity of his career so that Veronica can take the spotlight. He loves her more than his job, and this is a great place to leave the character as it shows growth (albeit right at the end of the films).

But whenever writers come at the task of creating a sequel, one for a film that was never intended to be more than a one-off story, they have a very specific problem to tackle: how do you do a second film without regressing your main characters. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues fails to tackle this issue. Instead it completely regresses Rob back to where he was, effectively, at the start of the first film. He’s once again a self-centered, egotistical man-baby, and that’s hard to watch. We’re stuck with Ron, going through the same motions all over again (sometimes quite literally) as the film tells essentially the same story. It was funny once (and even twice with the alternate cut), but another bite of the (Big) apple (since this film takes place in New York) is simply too far for this franchise.

After six years (since their last movie), Ron (Ferrell) and Veronica (Applegate) are now in New York, working at a network station, co-anchoring together. But when the big, prime time slot comes available, only one of the two is selected for the job: Veronica. Ron, meanwhile, is fired because he’s absolutely terrible at his job. Ron takes it very poorly, demanding that Veronica choose him or the job. Predictably she chooses the job, and Ron, despite having a child with Veronica, storms off.

We catch up with him six months later, a washed up drunk hosting dolphin shows at Sea World. But opportunity comes calling right when he’s at his lowest. Freddie Shapp (Dylan Baker), a representative for the new 24-hour news channel GNN, wants Ron to be an anchor again. Ron agrees, but only as long as he can have his news team with him. He gets the team together – David Koechner as sportscaster Champ Kind, Paul Rudd as street reporter Brian Fantana, and Steve Carell as weatherman Brick Tamland – and they all head to New York. And then, astonishingly, Ron and his crew are a hit, reporting the news people want to watch and not just what they need to see. Can Ron’s ego handle his success or will he flame out once again?

It didn’t particularly feel like the first Anchorman had much of a plot (especially when you consider that it’s one real plot was cut out of the original film because it just didn’t work), leaving the film as a collection of scenes about how Ron couldn’t take having a woman as co-anchor. But even in comparison to that, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues really has no direction and no story. Ron kind of coasts through the movie, making dumb decisions that pay off and rarely suffering any kinds of consequences for his actions. And even when he is punished (in a late film twist) it even reverts that simply because the film is too in love with Ron, this idiotic man-child, to really have him suffer or learn anything.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the film were actually funny. There are plenty of largely formless comedies that have become hits. Airplane! Is one that comes to mind, as is American Pie. These films are collections of funny scenes strung together until some kind of conclusion spontaneously happens, and that does work. It doesn’t work here though because the film is lacking one key thing that makes the formula work: humor. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues just isn’t funny.

To be fair, there are a couple of moments that did get laughs out of me, although they are essentially retreads of material from the first film. The original movie had a scene where Brian revealed his cupboard full of colognes, and this film has an even more over the top scene of him revealing his cupboard full of condoms. And then there is another scene where all the various news teams across New York (and the world) come together for a battle royale, just like we saw in the previous film. Are these scenes great? Yes, but they aren’t new and they didn't make the movie.

Most of the time the film relies on Ron screaming, being loud, or being offensive. This isn’t my kind of humor, and I won’t deny that. I find him obnoxious and he makes me cringe. The film is going for awkward humor, I’m sure, but it doesn’t do it in a way that I can find funny. Worse, though, is that it feels like the film hits these notes even harder than it did in the previous film, making for a more rote and less enjoyable viewing experience. When we reached a point where Ron was trying to act Black to impress his new girlfriend’s Black family, I wanted to shut the film off. I just couldn’t take this idiot any longer.

I get it: Will Ferrell has his fans, and this is just the kind of performance that has made him a famous comedy star for years now. But it does feel like that well is going dry. He’s starred in a ton of comedies just like this, and they all hit the same notes. It’s worse here, of course, because he’s really beating the dead horse with this production, not only redoing the same kind of character he’s done before, but also doing it in a story we’ve seen before that was done better because it didn’t have to regress its main character just to tell us the same story all over again. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues treats us like idiots, expecting us to accept the same story all over again, and I couldn’t stand it.

Some could, though, and the film was a hit, making $173.6 Mil on a $50 Mil budget. That’s more money than the first film made, but when you compare actual profits, the numbers aren’t quite as good. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy made four-and-a-half times its production budget while sequel Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues made three-and-a-half. Still a profit, although maybe not as much as the studio was hoping. Certainly there’s been no talk of a third, official film in the series and, by my account, that’s for the best.

We’ve said all we needed to say about Ron Burgundy. Hell, at this point we’ve said it three times over (counting the alternate cut of the first film). Please, just let this series end.