I saw the first Anchorman after the hoopla had worn off. Everyone had talked about how awesome it was, but I’m not the biggest fan of Will Ferrell. I have nothing against him personally; I just don’t find his brand of comedy the most entertaining. However Anchorman was a pleasant surprise. A silly movie about dumb people in the news industry. It had no staying power, I remember almost none of it, but I know I laughed and it’s one of the Will Ferrell comedies I liked. So when the sequel was announced I was fairly hopeful. It looked over the top and fun.

Ready for fun!

Here’s how I experienced the film.

• Here we go. This looks funny.

• Oh, the movie is a flashback. Really?

• Ok – this is pretty darn funny right out of the gate. I loved that motorhome scene.

• Huh… this doesn’t really make much sense.

• Ron Burgundy is hard to feel any compassion for. He’s an idiot.

• Wait – Ron Burgundy is making sense.

• Oh – that was for only one scene. It’s not an actual character trait.

• This is kind of annoying and slow.

• OMG Ron Burgundy is impossible to like.

• Okay – that was funny.

• What is going on. Why does Steve Carell yell everything he says?

• Meh

• This is uncomfortable

• Okay – great joke.

• I don’t care about anybody in this film

• I’m worn out.

• Are they seriously trying to do a character arc? In this pile of craziness?

• I get it. He’s an idiot and a jerk. I got it 55 minutes ago!

• I like this minotaur thing. But I don’t get the actual bloodlust story twist.

• Time to be over. Extending the story serves no purpose.

I’m about to scream the news.

Obviously I’m cutting out a lot but let me sum it up for you. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is funny. It without question contains some huge laughs. But it’s not funny enough, often enough, to compensate for the useless story lines and vapid characters. They are impossible to care about. Ron Burgundy is offered the chance to work on the first 24-hour cable news network. He reassembles his team from the first film via a quite entertaining, cross country road trip that ends with a hilarious crash that involves bowling balls and a scorpion. As the movie continues, the script smartly makes a statement about sensationalism replacing the news. Ron Burgundy gets the highest ratings on the fledgling cable network by focusing on the things that don’t matter, like broadcasting some random car chase instead of timely interviews with world leaders. But the message in there is only surface level: idiots who care nothing about educating people, get huge ratings destroying the news. It’s basically an indictment of the how the modern world gets its information; however, if you want to make a social argument, then it’s necessary to dive into the ramifications on the rest of America. Instead, Anchorman 2 puts all the attention on Ron Burgundy and his compatriots. Taking us down a path of extreme stupidity that is often distracting because our lead character becomes whatever the writers want, whenever they want. There’s not a lick of consistency. Burgundy is a complete idiot… except in some random instances where he’s the only one making sense. So when the rest of the team abandon’s Burgundy for being a jerk who gets absorbed by his fame, who cares. They’re all jerks. They all deserve nothing. And frankly, it all feels very random. Probably because it is random. At the end of the day, it just feels most like a group of funny people wanted to have some fun. The whole experience feels like it’s more for the actors and comedians than it’s for the audience.

The big finale fight scene is stuffed with so many cameos of famous people, and personal friends of the cast it left me wondering who the movie was for. Is it for us, to enjoy as it pushes the ideas and jokes, or is it just a fun thing for famous people to do on what would otherwise be a day off?

Story is what keeps a script driving to a conclusion. A script is as long as it takes to get across the ideas the author wants. That’s why some stories are short and others are long. Anchorman 2 is so random and so mercurial that the story exists only to make it “movie length.” By doing this, the real laughs are spread apart too far, separated by plotting that doesn’t matter and really just gets in the way. This movie would work better at 60 minutes. The jokes would come faster and the fluff would be cut away, allowing us to just laugh a lot.

At 119 minutes, it plays like 119 minutes. However, it really should only be half that length. Two hours is a lot of time even for a movie that has a lot to say. Anchorman 2 doesn’t have that much to say.

But hey – when there are laughs, they are big. So know that going in.