Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5
Where have I seen this before? Hmmm, oh yeah, Anchorman, the original. This is a sequel with the same premise, and the jokes come every 90 seconds or so like clockwork. Pretty funny throughout, but not great. Actually it has a point to make, not subtly, that at one point not too long ago (maybe in the 70’s with the first Eyewitness News in New York), the nightly news shows started assembling a formula of stories about celebrities, crime, graphics and sensationalism that pumped up ratings. Ron Burgundy embodies this anti-Cronkite figure, with his band of idiots (Steve Carell takes the cake as an over the top idiot, this time paired with his soul-mate idiotess played by Kristen Wiig, who seems to be playing one of those SNL skits that air at 12:25 am). Christina Applegate plays it straight in a thankless role, and to that end I think she’s miscast. Wouldn’t someone like Zoe Deschanel or Rebel Wilson be much better? Plot gives way to schtick with an overload of celebrity cameos popping up towards the end. Bottom line, fun film, stupid but not stupid or original enough. Suggest they retire Ron after this one.
Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5
The key words in Bill’s review were: ‘fun’ and ‘stupid’. This movie had plenty of both fun and stupidity and went way over the top at the end with the battle of the news teams. But overall I enjoyed this a little more than I expected.
It is interesting to think of the evolution of news with 24 hour news stations (as well as twitter, etc.) and the evolution of what and how things are covered.
For those in Austin (or any city with an Alamo Drafthouse) I definitely recommend seeing this there as they have an excellent pre-show with lots of Will Farell stuff and real news outtakes (including Sam Donaldson, Bill O’Reilly and many more).
Bill is also right this series should be retired while they still are successful. Not only are the two movies enough, with all the exposure that Will Ferrell has gotten on various outlets as Ron Burgundy enough is enough!
