Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Opening Weekend Box Office: #1 with $26,776,000
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $109,180,000
Gross Revenue: $144,180,000
Production Budget: $50 million
Director: Adam
McKay
Given Hollywood’s readiness to revisit profitable
intellectual property regardless of genuine inspiration or available story
continuation, it is not all that surprising that the first reaction to the
announcement of an Anchorman sequel
was one of skepticism, especially since the original film was in theaters
nearly a decade ago. And yet, as time
passed, public perception shifted towards optimism and anticipation, thanks to
a creative and utterly brilliant marketing campaign that fully leveraged the
one-and-only mustache master of “Afternoon Delight,” Ron Burgundy. From a cross-promotion standpoint, Ben &
Jerry’s limited edition Scotchy Scotch Scotch flavor was an entertaining
awareness device, but it is truly impressive that, as the face of Dodge
Durango’s newest campaign, Mr. Burgundy helped drive sales up nearly 40%...I
myself nearly traded-in my BMW after the TV spot where he mocked purebred
horsepower. An equally brilliant tactic
involved Ferrell’s appearances in character that made national headlines,
whether that included his newscast in Bismark, North Dakota, or his coverage of
the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Manitoba; safe to say that, if the film
was half as funny as its promotion campaign, audiences were in for a huge
treat. As a longtime fan of the San
Diego Channel 4 News Team, one who could quote the original film verbatim, I
could not wait for Anchorman 2: The
Legend Continues, and I was confident that Will Ferrell and his stacked
sequel cast would not disappoint.
Set several years after the conclusion of the first
film, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
opens with the legendary Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his wife Veronica
Corningstone (Christina Applegate) acting as co-anchors in New York. However, harmony is soon shattered when
senior network anchor Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford) promotes Veronica but fires
Ron; Veronica ecstatically chooses to pursue this tremendous opportunity, but a
jealous Ron retreats to San Diego, where he is unable to find steady work. Following an ill-advised stint at Sea World,
Ron is approached by GNN Station Agent Freddie Sharp (Dylan Baker), who is
working to develop the world’s first 24-hour news network and offers Ron a
chance to join the team…Burgundy agrees, provided that he work with his San
Diego compatriots, and so, Champ Kind (David Koechner), Brian Fantana (Paul
Rudd), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) all reassemble. Now back in New York, Ron immediately finds a
fresh rivalry in the form of primetime anchor Jack Lime (James Marsden), while
also facing uncharted workplace diversity with his new boss, station manager
Linda Jackson (Meagan Good), but he soon discovers success in championing fluff
news pieces. Basking in his newfound
fame, Ron attempts to reconcile with Veronica, but unforeseen complications
with everything from figure skating to clinical blindness and shark attacks,
all threaten to derail San Diego’s most treasured natural resource.
For as excited as I was about Anchorman 2, it didn’t take long for the nostalgia to wear-off and
leave significant weakness exposed, most of which are far too critical to forgive
and often stank of desperation, especially in comparison to its far superior
predecessor. Perhaps the biggest crime
committed is the narrative’s decision to sacrifice the screen time of returning
characters for new faces, the majority of whom have no place within a
high-profile comedy…James Masden and Dylan Baker convey such weak comedic
presence that they continually flat line any positive momentum that may have
been building. The only new cast member
who had a chance of replicating the genius of the original film’s dynamic was
Kristen Wiig, and yet her trademark comedic timing is so grossly misused that
her screen time echoes a type of pathetic SNL
skit that doesn’t know when to end. And
don’t think that the screen veterans are above reproach either, because Steve
Carell is utterly infuriating as he hams and overacts every scene, thereby
destroying the charm of the lovable idiot persona that he has made famous over
the years. As a hardcore fan of the
original Anchorman, I really wanted
to love The Legend Continues, but the
sad truth is that this uninspired, cash-grab of a sequel serves as a prime
example of a film that should never have been made in the first place.
For the life of me, I cannot fathom how critics can
justify all the praise that has been heaped on Ron Burgundy’s second adventure
in the past few weeks, because I maintain that in spite a few fleeting laughs
and a glut of familiar faces, the project in its entirety is still
mediocre. Even though she is on screen
for only a fraction of the running time, Cristina Applegate owns every one of
her scenes and delivers a majority of the quotable dialogue…what a shame that
the script didn’t see fit to have her spar with Will Ferrell, because none of
her replacements were even close to qualified.
When we were first introduced to the San Diego News Team in 2004, they
helped pave the way for a decade of satire and adult-themed comedy, which makes
it all the more disappointing to see this film limp from joke to joke in the
hopes of eliciting a laugh; in fact, I was ready to write-off this movie
entirely until the final minutes revisited a classic scenario from the
original. That’s right, The Legend Continues delivers yet
another over-the-top, ridiculously violent, and cameo-filled rival News Team
Brawl that is more entertaining in five minutes than the rest of the film was
in the two-hour running time. In the
end, beyond those few rays of sunshine, it is insulting to think that this
sub-par product was the final result of the nine years that Adam McKay and Will
Ferrell had to deliver a worthy follow-up for their fans.
Well, it looks like the aggressive marketing
campaign for Anchorman 2: The Legend
Continues paid-off immensely well, with this sub-par yet high-profile
comedy debuting at over $26 million and to-date earning nearly $150 million in
global receipts. With such profits
weighed against a modest $50 million production budget and word of mouth
currently failing to dissuade moviegoers, it isn’t out of the realm of
possibility that we may see a third adventure for Ron Burgundy. In fact, rumor has it that there is so much
unused footage from ad-libbed takes that a separate alternate film could
accompany the home-media release…but ask yourself, if the finished product
tried this hard to gain a laugh, what in the hell does the secondary reel look
like? If anything, Anchorman 2 acts as a case study against the release of classic
comedy sequels, and, by extension, signals that next November’s Dumb and Dumber To should be approached
with extreme caution. I really do wish I
had better news to deliver, but trust me, even if you consider yourself a
hardcore fan of one of Will Ferrell’s better characters, you may be better
advised to simply re-watch the promotional campaign rather than to head to the
theater and see this train wreck.
Overall
Recommendation: Low
