Film Review: Anchorman 2

Anchorman 2. Rated M (sexual references, drug use, coarse language and comedic violence). 119 minutes. Directed by Adam McKay. Written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

Verdict: Ferrell and Co are back in fine, and mostly hilarious, form.

Picking up several months from where Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) left off, this sequel ploughs right on in to the same squirm-inducing terrain on the back of Will Ferrell’s wonderful portrayal of the super-vain television news anchorman Ron Burgundy.

When his now wife Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is chosen over Ron to become the first female news anchor in television history, Ron’s bitterness and jealousy drives them apart. But when Ron is invited to anchor the graveyard shift of a new Australian-owned Global News Network (GNN), the first 24-hour television news service, he reunites his gang of hapless misfits to take Veronica on in the battle of the ratings.

Ferrell’s vainglorious Burgundy is a masterpiece of shameless clowning, and the verbal slapstick throughout Ferrell and McKay’s screenplay is hugely entertaining in a ‘did they really just get away with that?’ kind of way. In sequence after sequence, political correctness is simply trampled underfoot, particularly the gasp-inducing exploits involving Ron and his family at the lighthouse he retires to after an accident.

Steve Carell’s endearing weatherman Brick, David Koechner’s overly-affectionate redneck sportscaster Champ, and Paul Rudd’s equally-vain reporter Brian provide ever-reliable support, with Carrell’s appearance in front of the state-of-the-art ‘green screen’ weather map an absolute highlight.

If the film comes close to drowning in chaos towards the end, there has been much to laugh at up until the point of no return – when not even cameos from the likes of Jim Carrey, Tina Fey and Liam Neeson can save it from over-playing its hand. But restraint and none-too-subtle jabs at the dubious morals of a manufactured 24-hour televised news cycle are of little concern to Ferrell and Co. They aim for madcap, character-based shenanigans and, refreshingly, manage to mostly bring it off successfully.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.