Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

At some point over the festive period, many of you will watch Will Ferrell in Elf, the Christmas comedy which has become a family favourite in recent years. If, however, you're something of a Scrooge or simply have no desire to watch a man prance about in an over-sized elf costume, you can also catch Will Ferrell in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (albeit in a rather different role). The original Anchorman was released nine years ago and secured broad praise from both critics and audiences. Anchorman 2 follows much the same format, and here lies both its successes and its biggest flaw.

Anchorman 2 sees Ron Burgundy (Ferrell), the famous 1970s news anchor and infamous chauvinist, being dropped from his news show in favour of his wife (played by Christina Applegate). Washed up and disillusioned with the world, Ron receives an unexpected offer to feature on the world's first 24-hour news channel and the old gang from the first film is reunited. This set-up plays well for the laughs and gives enough of a reason for a sequel to be made.

Ferrell is most certainly the moustachioed glue for the film and his dead-pan delivery of lines, coupled with Steve Carell's rather simple Brick Tamland, was very entertaining and Ferrell's writing credits are clear to see. Kristen Wiig as Brick's love interest was a great new addition to the gang and her scenes with Carell managed to be awkward and hilarious at the same time. The off-the-wall, slightly bizarre humour seen in the first film continues and when it works, it is really rather funny. The issue, however, is that the film is what I would call “securely funny”: it has enough laughs in it to keep its head above water but it is never outrageously, raucously funny. Indeed, the chuckles are well-paced and are sustained throughout the rather too-long 119 minute running time, but I think I just wanted the wit and satire to be that little more biting.

The central problem with some of the gags is less the sexual politics (which were central to the first film) and more its racial politics which just felt like a target for cheap laughs (a scene where Ron meets his lover's family around the dinner table was laughable but, with hindsight, was somewhat misjudged). On a further level, the film's final quarter lacked direction and fell apart. In a mystifying park fight sequence between news readers from different countries, the screenplay seemed to be grasping at straws, hoping that if enough celebrity cameos were shoe-horned in, then the audience may be distracted from the script's shortcomings.

The biggest obstacle for Anchorman 2 is its prequel. The original film was arguably more funny, felt novel and had more of a spark. Anchorman 2, whilst it does have enough jokes to sustain the audience through shots of Will Ferrell wrestling with a shark, the film remains less coherent and more problematic than the first. Securely funny it may be, but sometimes that just isn't enough.

Clapperboard Rating: * * *