It is hard to think of a place that has escaped usage of a promotional outlet for this movie.
A litany of real life US news broadcasts, various late-night entertainment shows, duets with Robin Thicke and One Direction, promotions with Tango and Ben & Jerry's, "Great Odin's Raven"-brand Scotch, and even announcements on Virgin Trains services have borne the face, voice and lines from one of the film world's most infamous characters.
In the discussion on the attempts to promote the brand, the makers discussed they wanted saturation. Based in the face of such overwhelming Ron Burgundy promotion, its hard to evade it.
The world of Anchorman 2 is certainly different at first to the world Anchorman 1 created. It begins a few years after the panda birth that ended Ron's time in San Diego local news and sent him to the big time.
Ron (Will Ferrell) and his wife Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) are now big-time anchors for a New York news station. Ron's hero Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford) summons them to his office after a seemingly strong broadcast to announce Veronica as his replacement, and dismisses Ron for his continually poor behaviour.
The resulting friction is enough for Ron to walk out on Veronica and their son Walter (Judah Nelson), and he later re-appears in San Diego fired from the Seaworld centre and botching a suicide attempt. But after this, a corner turns when an agent looks to hire him for the 24-hour Global News Network.
Ron eventually agrees and runs about recruiting the old news gang. Champ (David Koechner) is now in charge of a fried chicken/bat restaurant, Brian (Paul Rudd) is now a celebrity cat photographer and Brick (Steve Carrell) inexplicably shows up at his own funeral convinced he's dead.
Newsteam reassembled, they crash their way back to New York City to find they're in the 2am slot on GNN's launch day. Things then get worse when a fight with GNN primetime anchor Jack Lime (James Marsden) ends in a bet over ratings, with Ron vowing to give up journalism if he loses.
This is the point where the film attempts to be something more than a vehicle for its laugh rate. The first part of the film is content to make a mixture of jokes - some land, some fail, most provide a wry smile at least, but at this point, the film attempts to curate itself as satire of modern news.
Ferrell has form with attempts at satire, having previously attempted goes the loss of Christmas spirit (Elf), corporate finance sharks (The Other Guys), political corruption (The Campaign) and George W. Bush (the one-man Broadway show You're Welcome America). But this feels a lot more closer to its subject because it takes the structure of the first movie and gives it a huger, albeit excessively exaggerated, scope to mirror the failings of the real world news.
Its also no denying that there's a few pot shots in turn for the US networks, with the boss an obvious stab at Rupert Murdoch and a number of views of CNN and Fox News - both much-maligned targets, not least by John Stewart.
Ron's attempt at winning the ratings war is telling people what they want to hear, which leads to sensationalist and absurd news stories at the expense of actual news. But this proves to be success - his project sees huge ratings, he wins the bet, sees his team's formula bumped into a primetime slot and sees a scramble of rival channels to make it his.
The weakest sequence of the film sees Ron fall in love with network chief Linda Jackson (Maegan Good), which leads to a series of uncomfortable and unnecessary race-based humour. This is a weird counterpoint to Brick falling in love with a similarly dim-witted co-worker Chani (Kristen Wiig), which provides some lovably odd moments.
Very much like in the first movie, Brick is a whirlwind of confusing and often astounding lines that often deliver in spades. But his simple presence also provides a poignant moment in the film's trajectory, as Ron shouts at Brick, which leads to an argument that ends in the newsteam deserting Ron and his fame-enhanced ego.
This soon reaches the end of the road, and within months, Ron is a recluse living alone with his dog Baxter in a lighthouse. But soon he has rehabilitated thanks to surgery and the revival of his relationship with Veronica and the long-overdue creation of one with Walter.
This is the strange touch as the film is another comedy attempting a serious narrative about its main hero. But it also incorporates a lot of references to film number one. This is not least near the end, where the legendary Newsteam Fight sequence is expanded exponentially and massively, including a shedload of celebrity cameos and the classically inexplicable acquirement of assorted weapons.
The laughs are not the fresh-out-the-box laughter that number one was. But it feel more an even distribution of amusing laughter, with some bigger gags scattered around when needs be. These usually involve Brick, with the comedic potential of Champ and Brian both fizzling out by the end.
This is not quite legendary, but those who buy into the hype will get enough entertainment and there is plenty that captures enough of the spirit of the first film to sustain amusement in the fate of all the characters. At the end of the day, that should be enough to justify the sequel.
3.5/5
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