Guest Blogger: Zach 2

The year 2004 brought the film Anchorman and now this past year in 2013 the film Anchorman 2 was released to the public once again following the legendary Ron Burgundy. The film begins with Ron Burgundy who is working as a news anchor in New York City with his wife Veronica Corningstone. Mack Tannen, a famous nightly news anchor, is retiring from his job and decides to promote Veronica to a nightly news anchor while he fires Ron for his horrible performances on air. Flash forward six months and Ron is back in San Diego divorced from Veronica looking to get another news anchor job with GNN, the world’s first 24 hour news station. Ron decides to assemble the old news team of Brian Fantana, Brick Tamland, and Champ Kind. Ron and the team start out at GNN with the last slot of the night but work their way up to a primetime slot on air when Ron decides to broadcast what the people want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Their way of broadcasting the news draws in audiences with their attention grabbing headlines even though they may not always be correct. As Ron becomes more popular on air he draws attention from his former wife Veronica and the two once again have a confrontation that will change Ron Burgundy’s life. The main actors featured in this epic film are Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, Steve Carell as Brick Tamland, Paul Rudd as Brain Fantana, David Koechner as Champ Kind, and Christina Applegate as Veronica Corningstone. Each of these actors is reprising their role from the original Anchorman and once again they each do a great performance in Anchorman 2. The actor that again did an amazing job was Steve Carell as Brick who is now even more awkward than the last time we saw him. Will Ferrell as Ron is just as hilarious as before but now with even more sensational lines to quote from. Speaking of Will Ferrell, his character Ron Burgundy is motivated to regain his dignity that he lost from being fired as a news anchor in New York. His determination shows as he works hard to succeed as an anchor for GNN even through all the mistakes he made. The ways of Ron Burgundy show the main theme of this movie even though it can sometimes be lost in the comedy. The theme is to work hard and never give up no matter how bleak the situation is. When Ron loses his job in New York he doesn’t throw in the towel and quit but rather works hard to get another anchor position to regain the appeal that he once had. With all this said this movie is getting mixed reviews from many critics with more leaning towards the negative side. For example J.R Jones on ChicagoReader.com mentions how the film is full of “fluff” and the jokes were not as well put together as they were in the original Anchorman. He also mentions putting so many well-known actors into the same film is like “being locked in a broom closet full of Tourette's victims”. I agree with some parts of what he said because towards the last 45 minutes of the film there seems to be no plot but rather just the actors going off on random tangents. Overall though this is a great movie. Anyone who has seen the first Anchorman should definitely take time to watch the second and enjoy the great laughs that this film has to offer. Audiences will also enjoy seeing a star-studded cast with some guest appearances in the film. Audiences will not regret the decision they made to see this film.