Nearly 10 years after the original, the creators of Anchorman released a sequel to the cult favorite movie.
Premiering on December 18, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, follows Ron Burgundy, played by Will Ferrell, with the 70s behind him, returning to the news desk with his wife, Veronica Corningstone, who is played by Christina Applegate. Also back are his fellow news team members, sports reporter Champ Kind (David Koechner), weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), and man-on-the-street Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd). The story follows the team, now in the 80s, being hired for a new 24-hour news network.
While the two films have the same actors and general storylines, the second is definitely more centered around Burgundy in general. The first film’s conflict is Corningstone joining the news team and competing with Ron. The second film’s main plotline revolves around Ron’s struggle to win back his wife after she becomes head anchor, manage his new job on the network’s worst time slot, and connect with his young son that Veronica claims he never spends any time with.
The original Anchorman movie has many taglines that viewers love and remember; similar components are brought into the second film, such as Ron’s random sayings, “I’m in a glass case of emotion!” or “Well, that escalated quickly,” and Champ Kind’s classic slogan, “Whammy!” As sequels usually require a viewer to see the original film, the second movie holds just enough originality to be easy to follow for an audience that possibly never saw the first Anchorman.
Taylor Skie, a sophomore and fan of the Anchorman franchise, said that she enjoyed the second film more than the first. “I liked Anchorman 2. It wasn’t like great cinematic work but it was very funny,” said Skie. “I liked it better because I thought that the first one had more of a plot, but because the second was more random, there were more surprises. You didn’t know what was going to happen, which just made it even more enjoyable to watch.”
As Ferrell is a very well-known actor, his performance in Anchorman 2 was on point compared to the first movie. He portrays Burgundy’s character just as well in this film as the original. Along with Koechner, Carell, and Rudd, all of the actors in the film continued their roles well after a decade since the last time they played them.
The Anchorman movies are famous for certain scenes and concepts that they have, including the Panther cologne used to attract women, Ron’s flute-playing, and the well-known battle of the news anchors, featuring many guest stars. In the first film, stars like Luke Wilson, Adam Sandler, and Jack Black had cameos. In this newest film, there were even more stars like Kanye West, Jim Carrey, Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Smith, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler.
The sequel generally has more unexpected scenarios than the first, especially involving more random and crude humor. Also surprising, the second film maintained all of the original cast members, and successfully entertained the audience with the right balance of the key elements that the first film had, while still bringing something new to the table for viewers to be interested.
Rumors of the second installment had been circulating for years when at last, director Adam McKay released news in March 2013 that it would be coming sometime later that year. While there was lots of skepticism around a second film being released so late after the original film, the movie itself has managed to live up to the first in the series. Having just as much originality and humor as the first film, it truly holds its own.
