Anchorman 2: the Legend Continues (15.)
Directed by Adam McKay.
Starring Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate and Dylan Baker. 119 mins
It seems to me that most of the great American comic creations of the last couple of decades – Homer Simpson, the Seinfeld cast, Larry David (Curb edition), Team America - have been endearing monsters. They exhibit all the brash excess that makes the rest of the world wary and resentful of the US but combine it with a charming shamelessness that seems to be saying, go on you know you love it.
No comic character exemplifies this more than Ferrell’s creation Ron Burgundy the boorish, bigoted, ignorant newsman who somehow retains a childlike innocent. While Alan Partridge, the closest thing we have to a British equivalent, remains irredeemably selfish and mean spirited, Burgundy has a capacity to change and learn.
Ferrell has long struck me as the perfect evolutionary culmination of the whole Saturday Night Live comedy strand, but it is when he works with director McKay that his comic genius really finds its greatest expression. Talladega Nights and The Other Guys are joyously smart satires yet so exuberantly entertaining that hardly anybody noticed.
They are not about to make that mistakes again. Subtlety has been given a film off. In this sequel Burgundy and his faithful news team reunite in New York to work on a new 24 hour news channel run by a crass Australian businessman. In a desperate attempt to get better ratings than star newsman James Lime (James Marsden) Burgundy singled handedly dumbs down news standards by serving up a diet of patriotism, cute animals, sex and live car chases.
After some initial scepticism (when the joy of seeing Burgundy again looked like it may give way to the disappointment of seeing Ferrell play safe) the film hits its stride and is every bit as funny as the original, gloriously absurd yet sharp. There will be complaints about it being too long and overstuffed with cameos and that it is a typical overblown sequel, but excess suits such characters. Indeed Ron Burgundy demands excess and however big and broad they play it, there’s nothing lazy in the movie.
Directed by Adam McKay.
Starring Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate and Dylan Baker. 119 mins
It seems to me that most of the great American comic creations of the last couple of decades – Homer Simpson, the Seinfeld cast, Larry David (Curb edition), Team America - have been endearing monsters. They exhibit all the brash excess that makes the rest of the world wary and resentful of the US but combine it with a charming shamelessness that seems to be saying, go on you know you love it.
No comic character exemplifies this more than Ferrell’s creation Ron Burgundy the boorish, bigoted, ignorant newsman who somehow retains a childlike innocent. While Alan Partridge, the closest thing we have to a British equivalent, remains irredeemably selfish and mean spirited, Burgundy has a capacity to change and learn.
Ferrell has long struck me as the perfect evolutionary culmination of the whole Saturday Night Live comedy strand, but it is when he works with director McKay that his comic genius really finds its greatest expression. Talladega Nights and The Other Guys are joyously smart satires yet so exuberantly entertaining that hardly anybody noticed.
They are not about to make that mistakes again. Subtlety has been given a film off. In this sequel Burgundy and his faithful news team reunite in New York to work on a new 24 hour news channel run by a crass Australian businessman. In a desperate attempt to get better ratings than star newsman James Lime (James Marsden) Burgundy singled handedly dumbs down news standards by serving up a diet of patriotism, cute animals, sex and live car chases.
After some initial scepticism (when the joy of seeing Burgundy again looked like it may give way to the disappointment of seeing Ferrell play safe) the film hits its stride and is every bit as funny as the original, gloriously absurd yet sharp. There will be complaints about it being too long and overstuffed with cameos and that it is a typical overblown sequel, but excess suits such characters. Indeed Ron Burgundy demands excess and however big and broad they play it, there’s nothing lazy in the movie.
