With his Salon groomed hair, silky tones and many leather-bound books; Ron Burgundy returns with yet more of his news reporting life in Anchorman 2. Review after the jump.
It was always going to be difficult. To follow-up one of the most quotable comedy films of the last decade with another hilarious sequel is a lot to ask for and, while Anchorman 2 doesn’t quite hit all the right marks, it is still instantly watchable and funny for the most part.
Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone are married and with a son – Walt. Life is going great for the two until the channel they report for promote Veronica and fire Ron. This tears them apart and sends Ron to turn to the drink, yet he is offered a role reporting the news for a 24 hour news station – something that was unheard of back in 1980.
Ron then unites the old team to get back in business. Brick was supposedly dead, Champ owned a fried chicken restaurant that actually sold fried bats and Brian Fantana turned to photographing cats. Together they make up the night shift news team at their new channel. But obviously Ron being Ron, with a little bit of luck and some outrageous stunts, once again becomes the darling of news reporting. 
Adam McKay returns to directing as does nearly the entire cast of the original. We are joined by some new characters including James Marston’s Jack Lime, Harrison Ford and Kristen Wiig along with a whole host of star-studded cameos from Jim Carrey, Will Smith and Liam Neeson.
When the jokes are on point, Anchorman 2 is a very funny film, but the problem lies on it trying to hard to copy the content of Anchorman in hope that it can once again pull it off. We have already seen Ron ad lib his lines in prep for going live, we have seen Baxter come to the rescue against a much larger animal, we have seen Ron lose his cool and start shouting obscenities and we have seen Brick’s incredible stupidity. While a lot of that should feature briefly in the sequel (after all they are traits of the characters themselves) the take up pride and place as the movie’s main jokes.
All in all though, Anchorman 2 is a well-made comedy and worth a watch, especially if you adored the first like millions of others.
Overall Thoughts:
Anchorman 2 is very funny in parts, yet it suffers from a lack of originality. Worth a watch? Absolutely. Better than the original? Certainly not.