BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
To say that “Anchorman” wasn’t one of the best comedy movies of all time is just stupidity. It didn’t get the love in the theatre as I should have, but as time went on people just seemed to accept it. Will Ferrell has made plenty of great comedy movies, but it’s safe to say that the first Anchorman is the bar that’s set really high. Other movies are good, but they are all fighting for second place. Will and co-writer/director Adam McKay fought and got the sequel made. Sadly, it seemed to have fallen to the same fate in the theatres. It made A LOT of money, but it almost didn’t feel like enough. The buzz and hype for the movie didn’t really hit the mark that one would expect. That’s probably MY problem though. I expected it to be HUGE and become the number one grossing comedy of all time. I expected people to devote their brain to it the same way they did The Hangover. I expected it to put Will Ferrell on top of the world. Instead, what we got was a great comedy movie. Nothing more, nothing less. It jumps back into the world of news casting with a new chapter of the story. Ron Burgundy and the gang get back together for the early days of 24 hour news networks. In the process, they create the junk-news reporting that Fox news and other news networks seem to use. It’s the cheesy, over the top, and pandering news style that we’ve all pretty much grown used to. The way they pull it off is spot on and hilarious. The jokes are plentiful and the characters are as funny as ever. It’s a lot of the same. They deliver the same type of jokes, the tone, the surprise appearances, the ridiculous stunt casting, and everything we enjoyed about the first one. I’m not quite sure if gave us anything more though. It didn’t really “evolve”, but I’m not sure if it needed to. Of course the original will always be “better” because it creates the world we enjoy and opens the doors to things. The second one instantly gets expectations and has to live up the second one. Anchorman 2 does not live up the expectations I had for it. It was hilarious and fun to watch, but after watching it I didn’t feel the same kind of engaged glee of the first one. I need to watch this movie again. I feel like I’m unfairly criticizing it, but this was my honest first impression. I’d still like to see a part three to wrap up the story. Was it funny? Of course. Was it a movie I’m holding up in the same regard as the original or even other Ferrell/McKay movies? Not really. Watch it, decide for yourself, and watch it again. I’m going to have to. I’m clearly overanalyzing this. B+ (for now)
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