Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

PLOT:

Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell) had everything, a perfect wife with his co-anchor Veronica Corningstone (played by Christina Applegate), a loving son, and the best job in the world as San Diego's top news anchor. Until he is fired for being the worst news anchor in the world. With losing his job, Veronica getting the lead anchor spot, the two split and Ron finds himself not knowing what to do. At the end of his rope, Ron gets offered a job as being the overnight anchor of a all night, 24 hour news station at GNN. Getting the team back together, Ron, Brick (played by Steve Carell), Brian (played by Paul Rudd), and Champ (played by David Koechner) change the way the way news is broadcast. It's time for Ron Burgundy to take back the world by doing it the news way.

ACTING/STORY:

There are a lot of big name a list actors in this movie, from the leads like Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate to the cameos of Harrison Ford, Will Smith, and Jim Carrey, (which is just a very few of the actors in this movie, if you want the very long full list of them check it out online and you will be amazed at how many characters are in this movie), but the level of acting wouldn't put these actors in the a list. I was thinking that with all the hype this movie received, the amount of acting talent in it, that it was going to be this non-stop laugh fest but what I watched was movie with actors trying hard to be funny. Steve Carell is the best one of the cast as he plays his character of Brick Tamland once again as this child like adult who if yelled at will hide behind a couch.

Most disappointing about this movie is that it really isn't funny. Will Ferrell's character, Ron Burgundy, at times was a little funny but having him so out of touch and idiotic made him less funny instead of more. Every joke in this movie felt forced, instead of a reaction between the characters as the jokes are being told it seemed more rehearsed. The only characters that was somewhat believable was Christina Applegates, except for the fact that she actually liked someone like Ron Burgundy.

As far as the story goes, it just plodded along going through the story of how Ron Burgundy changed the way the news was done. It went from being real news to being about the ratings at any cost. What makes this movie have some humor is how similar the jokes they use and the way the portray the news to how it is in reality. Not that there is anyone on the air that is anywhere near being similar to Ron Burgundy, thank goodness. The only part that I liked about this movie, the part that had me laughing, was near the end when there was the battle royal between all the different news anchors.

I still didn't laugh much with this movie though. There are times that I chuckled, but the jokes, the acting, and the characters are so far over the top that they aren't that funny. Though the set and wardrobe in this movie is amazing. It's set during the 80's and it looks like it too, from those ugly suits and ties to the the equipment that looks like huge pieces of technology that is laughed at now. It's also a very long movie, in fact it has 3 versions and each one longer than the last. The PG-13 verison is just under 2 hours by 2 minutes, the unrated version is over 2 hours by 2 minutes, but the super-sized version is 2 hours 23 minutes and at best this movie should have been no more than an hour and half.

BLU RAY:

Though I wasn't laughing as much as how this movie is told to make people laugh, I found that the Blu Ray looked really good. The detail in the sets, the clothing, and the make up is clearly seen in this movie. Though the colors in this movie are not as bright as most movies these day they are still very crisp and sharp. The colors jump out with all the different styles being used, the soft blues of the suits, the bright reds of the ties, the set lighting, it's all mixed well to give the movie some beautiful colors. The best part, and always my favorite, is the gag reel that's included on this Blu Ray. It's in my opinion the funniest aspect of this movie but it's by far the least of the features that are given on this Blu Ray set. Not only are there 3 different versions of the movie, there's supposedly an extra 763 new jokes, over 90 minutes of deleted, extended, and alternate scenes. This is one of the most bonus feature heavy Blu Ray's I've ever seen that just seems to have a little bit of everything.