A recent transatlantic flight allowed me to catch four movies I have been meaning to watch. Thank you very much, United Airlines! Three of the four movies had sub-par reviews when there were initially released, so I hedged my expectations. But all three of them were exceeded expectations. Maybe the lesson here is to take reviews with a grain of salt (except reviews you read here at Tuesday Night Movies. Those are written in stone, digital stone).
The first of the four movies was Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Despite wanting to see Anchorman 2 in the theater, it slipped past me, which is surprising because of how much I enjoyed the first movie. I don’t quote it as often as some of my friends, but I still think it and star Will Ferrell are great.
Anchorman 2 was mostly good, but a little bit of a let down towards the end. My enjoyment of the movie was a bit uneven. I really liked the idea of the current 24 hour news cycle being the byproduct of Ron Burgundy and company. And I absolutely loved any scene involving Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig. Their two characters, Brick and Chani, stole the movie in my opinion. Any scene they were in had me laughing perhaps a bit too loudly for a crowded airplane. My absolute favorite scene in the entire movie occurred early on, when we catch up to see what’s new with Brick since Ron saw him last. There’s no scene in Anchorman 2 that captures the magic of Afternoon Delight from the first movie, but Brick’s eulogy at his own funeral might have been the closest Anchorman 2 got.
I also really liked how much Ron’s son Walter emulated his dad. Whether it was dressing in the style of Ron, or insulting Greg Kinnear’s character Gary with the same accusations as Ron, Walter was hilarious. The attempted punch on Gary by Walter, followed by Walter’s reasoning for missing the punch is even funnier coming from him than it was from Ron.
The movie is insanely quotable, with great one liners. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself saying things like “I’m not trying to be funny, but are you sure he’s not a midget with a learning disability?” and “If you’ve got an ass like the North Star, wise men are gonna want to follow it.”
The movie doesn’t suffer until the climax, but that fight in the park really dragged it down for me. It just seemed to go on forever. I did like the various cameos of all the different news organizations that sprung up in the 1980s, but it wasn’t long until it felt repetitive. It’s too bad, because if that scene had been reworked, Anchorman 2 would have been a “Blammo!” instead of a triple.
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