Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
0.5/4
Starring: Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Steve Carrell, Megan Good, Dylan Baker, Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Judah Nelson, Greg Kinnear
Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sexual Content, Drug Use, Language and Comic Violence
Comedy is subjective. What one person finds hilarious, the next person finds a torturous bore. I like to think that I have a widespread sense of humor, although I think everyone says that. I can laugh at anything from "Tommy Boy" to "Cruel Intentions" to "Death at a Funeral," and plenty in-between. Apologies to James Berardinelli, who started his review of "Freddy Got Fingered" in a very similar way to this. James, I swear, I'm not trying to plagiarize you. I just think that I have to defend myself before I go on some Will Ferrell bashing, and it kind of turned out like the beginning of your review of the Tom Green movie.
I can even laugh at Will Ferrell, who stars in this awful sequel to the monstrosity that came out a decade ago. I thought he was hilarious in "Elf" and "Old School," and he was amusing in "Wedding Crashers." There is one name that is missing from all these movies that is in both "Anchorman" movies (at least one that can be blamed: Adam McKay. Adam McKay wrote and directed both of the Ron Burgandy movies, and he was also the creative force behind "The Other Guys," which was supposedly Will Ferrell's "return to form." Due to the fact that Will Ferrell can be hilarious when he is not working with McKay, I blame the director for the movie's unbelievably poor quality. He has taken the term "belaboring the jokes" (meaning hammering them home until they are no longer funny) to a whole new level.
Ron Burgandy (Ferrell) has married his rival from the first movie, Veronica Corningstone (Applegate). They have a son named Walter (Nelson). Their boss, Mack Tannen (Ford), likes them a lot. He promotes Veronica and fires Ron. Unwilling to play second fiddle, Ron dumps her and rounds up his old crew and heads to New York. Ron, armed with idiot Texan Champ Kind (Koechner), sex-obsessed Brian Fantana (Rudd), and their pet, Brick Tamland (Carrell), who has only the intelligence to speak in nonsequitors and woo an equally challenged secretary named Chani Lastname (Kristen Wiig). Ron is picked up by Type A news CEO Linda Jackson (Good) for her new 24 hour news cycle. Unfortunately, they're in the time slot where no one will be watching. Prime time has gone to good looking stud Jack Lime (Marsden). Their fortunes switch when Ron discovers the power of junk food news.
Satire is a tricky thing (and that's what this is with every fiber of its being). It doesn't have to be subtle, but it has to be intelligent. Unfortunately, nothing in this movie could be described as "intelligent." This is stupid, stupid satire, making fun of the obvious and hammering it home with a sledgehammer. To be fair, a lack of intelligence can be an asset to comedy if it's used well (such as in "Tommy Boy"), but these characters are so dense that it's amazing that they're able to walk upright, much less form coherent sentences.
Will Ferrell does two things in this movie: overdramatize everything he says and screams. I have no doubt that this could be used to hilarious effect in a different comedy (in fact, it has). Watching Will Ferrell here is like watching someone try to improvise when they have no idea what they're doing. They say the first thing that comes to their head (which is what improv is) and resort to heavy dramatics to let us know that it's supposed to be funny. It doesn't work. Ron Burgandy doesn't have anything funny to say, and neither does anyone else.
Speaking of the rest of the cast, they're all just as plastic. It's as if McKay handed them the script on the day of the shoot and told them where to go and what to say (Uwe Boll did that in "Postal," and, surprising as it is to say, it worked to better effect there. Much better). All the performances, save for Good's, seem unrehearsed. No one appears to know what they're supposed to be doing, and it shows. Actors who have shown comic ability in the past (that's just about everyone) have suddenly gone camera shy. It's not just their fault. McKay's shot selection is constantly static and the timing is off..
I won't claim that this is completely worthless. Some of the jokes and gags are amusing, and one bit where Ron's un-PC behavior at a dinner party actually did make me laugh. Which is why I gave this movie a half star instead of the zero it so frequently deserves. There's about one amusing gag every ten minutes or more, and it's a two hour movie.
It's not as painful as last years crapfest "Identity Thief," but it comes close. I really hope that there isn't another movie this awful for a long, long, time.
Starring: Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Steve Carrell, Megan Good, Dylan Baker, Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Judah Nelson, Greg Kinnear
Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sexual Content, Drug Use, Language and Comic Violence
Comedy is subjective. What one person finds hilarious, the next person finds a torturous bore. I like to think that I have a widespread sense of humor, although I think everyone says that. I can laugh at anything from "Tommy Boy" to "Cruel Intentions" to "Death at a Funeral," and plenty in-between. Apologies to James Berardinelli, who started his review of "Freddy Got Fingered" in a very similar way to this. James, I swear, I'm not trying to plagiarize you. I just think that I have to defend myself before I go on some Will Ferrell bashing, and it kind of turned out like the beginning of your review of the Tom Green movie.
I can even laugh at Will Ferrell, who stars in this awful sequel to the monstrosity that came out a decade ago. I thought he was hilarious in "Elf" and "Old School," and he was amusing in "Wedding Crashers." There is one name that is missing from all these movies that is in both "Anchorman" movies (at least one that can be blamed: Adam McKay. Adam McKay wrote and directed both of the Ron Burgandy movies, and he was also the creative force behind "The Other Guys," which was supposedly Will Ferrell's "return to form." Due to the fact that Will Ferrell can be hilarious when he is not working with McKay, I blame the director for the movie's unbelievably poor quality. He has taken the term "belaboring the jokes" (meaning hammering them home until they are no longer funny) to a whole new level.
Ron Burgandy (Ferrell) has married his rival from the first movie, Veronica Corningstone (Applegate). They have a son named Walter (Nelson). Their boss, Mack Tannen (Ford), likes them a lot. He promotes Veronica and fires Ron. Unwilling to play second fiddle, Ron dumps her and rounds up his old crew and heads to New York. Ron, armed with idiot Texan Champ Kind (Koechner), sex-obsessed Brian Fantana (Rudd), and their pet, Brick Tamland (Carrell), who has only the intelligence to speak in nonsequitors and woo an equally challenged secretary named Chani Lastname (Kristen Wiig). Ron is picked up by Type A news CEO Linda Jackson (Good) for her new 24 hour news cycle. Unfortunately, they're in the time slot where no one will be watching. Prime time has gone to good looking stud Jack Lime (Marsden). Their fortunes switch when Ron discovers the power of junk food news.
Satire is a tricky thing (and that's what this is with every fiber of its being). It doesn't have to be subtle, but it has to be intelligent. Unfortunately, nothing in this movie could be described as "intelligent." This is stupid, stupid satire, making fun of the obvious and hammering it home with a sledgehammer. To be fair, a lack of intelligence can be an asset to comedy if it's used well (such as in "Tommy Boy"), but these characters are so dense that it's amazing that they're able to walk upright, much less form coherent sentences.
Will Ferrell does two things in this movie: overdramatize everything he says and screams. I have no doubt that this could be used to hilarious effect in a different comedy (in fact, it has). Watching Will Ferrell here is like watching someone try to improvise when they have no idea what they're doing. They say the first thing that comes to their head (which is what improv is) and resort to heavy dramatics to let us know that it's supposed to be funny. It doesn't work. Ron Burgandy doesn't have anything funny to say, and neither does anyone else.
Speaking of the rest of the cast, they're all just as plastic. It's as if McKay handed them the script on the day of the shoot and told them where to go and what to say (Uwe Boll did that in "Postal," and, surprising as it is to say, it worked to better effect there. Much better). All the performances, save for Good's, seem unrehearsed. No one appears to know what they're supposed to be doing, and it shows. Actors who have shown comic ability in the past (that's just about everyone) have suddenly gone camera shy. It's not just their fault. McKay's shot selection is constantly static and the timing is off..
I won't claim that this is completely worthless. Some of the jokes and gags are amusing, and one bit where Ron's un-PC behavior at a dinner party actually did make me laugh. Which is why I gave this movie a half star instead of the zero it so frequently deserves. There's about one amusing gag every ten minutes or more, and it's a two hour movie.
It's not as painful as last years crapfest "Identity Thief," but it comes close. I really hope that there isn't another movie this awful for a long, long, time.
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