Disappointing ‘Anchorman 2’ substitutes cameos for content

“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”

Directed by: Adam McKay

Starring: Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd

Grade: D

If you were as big a fan of 2004’s “Anchorman” as I was, then you understand why “Anchorman 2” was one of the most highly anticipated films of the last decade, and thus one of the most disappointing. The sequel to one of the landmark films in Will Ferrell’s career puts so much effort into making a spectacle that one has to wonder if Ferrell forgot what made “Anchorman” funny in the first place.

Set in 1980, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and wife Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) pick up where Anchorman ended, co-anchoring primetime news in New York City. The story accelerates quickly when Veronica is promoted to the new nightly anchor position while Ron is fired. He returns to San Diego, where a new 24-hour Global News Network (GNN) hires him and his old news crew buddies.

From there, the plot promptly turns into a series of tangential “Saturday Night Live” skits loosely connected by Ron’s quest to regain his mantle as America’s No. 1 anchor (again).

Where to begin? Everything we loved about the original — boisterous and loony characters, violently funny slapstick — is forcefully over-exploited in “Anchorman 2.”

For instance, incompetent weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) was arguably the funniest character in “Anchorman.” He didn’t have many speaking lines, but when he did talk, it was usually hilarious and quote-worthy (“Loud noises!”).

In this sequel, Brick has twice as many speaking lines, and not a single one is memorable. When he’s not saying something completely irrelevant (which he does a lot more this time), he’s screaming at the top of his lungs in that nasally shriek of his. This isn’t what made Brick’s lines funny in the first film, and it certainly doesn’t conjure a laugh in the sequel.

Sports anchor Champ Kind (David Koechner), is even more overblown than Brick. His secret love for Ron Burgundy, which was funny because it was only hinted at in Anchorman, becomes woefully exaggerated.

The film doesn’t lack material with which to work, either — it has the entire decade of 1980 and CNN (represented by Ron’s new employer, GNN) with which to play.

Instead of doing what “Anchorman” did best — poking fun at news culture — the movie shamelessly leans on a plethora of nonsensical celebrity cameos (Kanye West, Drake and Liam Neeson, to name a few) more than actual jokes and media commentary.

Harrison Ford’s cameo as an intimidatingly stoic news anchor is actually a pleasant and amusing surprise — until he turns into a werewolf and disappears (literally).

It’s disheartening to see the likes of Ferrell, Carell and Paul Rudd waste their talents on a movie that obviously spent more thought and effort on celebrity cameos and advertising than it did on writing.