I wanted so badly to find Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues funny. The trouble is that it just isn’t. A boring, bloated mess that does little but tread old ground, it’s so jam-packed with lazy gags and half-hearted plot development that it garners more groans than giggles.
Will Ferrell returns to the franchise as “Ron Burgundy,” who has left his news desk in San Diego for another in New York. When his boss decides to promote his wife to lead anchor and cut him loose, he goes into full-on mid-life crisis mode – until a new opportunity from a 24-hour news network falls in his lap.
All of this sounds like a recipe for comedy gold, but unfortunately, it doesn’t turn out that way. Although Ferrell and writer/director Adam McKay have written a screenplay that’s occasionally chuckle-worthy, they don’t seem to know when to stop, spitting out cheap joke after cheap joke for most of the film’s two-hour runtime. Had they skipped a few plot points and shortened the runtime by about half an hour, they could have upped the tempo and made the gags feel fresh. As it stands, though, it’s a slow, lumbering movie that leaves one feeling dazed and exhausted by its final act.
And it’s not just the script that feels worn out – the actors don’t fare much better. The whole Ferrell and company shtick simply doesn’t feel fresh anymore. The one highlight, though, is Steve Carell as “Brick Tamland,” whose hilariously blank naiveté and wacky non-sequiturs never seem to get old. He gives a quicker, sharper performance than Ferrell, whose sense of timing has begun to seem too slow.
All in all, if you’re looking for a raunchy, laugh-a-minute comedy, you can safely skip Anchorman 2. Ferrell just isn’t at his finest anymore.
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