Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

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While the original "Anchorman" ground its wheels in the finale, this film takes up where that one left off, error-wise.

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is fired from his job as his wife Veronica (Christina Applegate) takes a new position as a national anchor in New York City. Ron is approached by Freddie (Dylan Baker) to take the graveyard shift of a new cable news channel, and must reassemble his trusty news team and head to NYC. Champ (David Koechner) runs a disgusting fried chicken restaurant (they serve bat), Brian (Paul Rudd) takes photographs of kittens for inspirational posters, and Brick (Steve Carell) is thought dead. Veronica and Ron's son (Judah Nelson) are already in New York when the team finally arrives, with Veronica taking up with psychologist Gary (Greg Kinnear). Ron butts heads with the new network's star anchor Jack (James Marsden), as well as his new boss, Lisa (Meagan Good). Ron and his new boss begin dating, and Ron's newscasts are ratings blockbusters because they don't deliver the news people should watch, but want to watch. Of course, as narrator Bill Kurtis tells us, Ron has an Icarus-like fall, and must claw his way back into the lives of his family, and his news team.

The first half hour of the story, with Ron and Veronica breaking up and his reassembling of the news team is amusing, but also a mess of editing. There is no rhythm to the scenes, it seems the cuts are placed precisely before the actors break into laughter. I mostly grinned through the beginning of the film, until the cast hits New York, and things get terribly funny. The new cast members are great, holding their own with Ferrell and company. Kristen Wiig's Chani matches Brick line for line in weirdness. Meagan Good is perfect. There are oddball segments like Ron's lighthouse retreat and the raising of a shark, that had me question where the film makers were going before I gave in and somehow found myself giggling hysterically all the way through. Ferrell's Burgundy is a lovable buffoon, whether making inappropriate racist comments at Lisa's parents' dinner table, or cursing in front of his angelic son. McKay and Ferrell go way off the rails at the end, in an anchor team fight that will go down in movie history for all of its cameos, but the build-up to the special effects-laden silliness is both appropriate and very funny. This film is equal to the original film, but I am kind of hoping a Part 3 isn't on the horizon. It would be hard to beat the lunacy of this.

Stats:
(2013) 119 min. (* * * *) out of five stars
-Directed by Adam McKay
-Written by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay
-Cast: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Paul Rudd, Meagan Good, Dylan Baker, James Marsden, Judah Nelson, James Marsden, Greg Kinnear, Josh Lawson, Kristen Wiig
(PG-13)