THE WHALE HAS TWO VAGINAS: In something sure to make you question yet again whether Hollywood has, in fact, run out of ideas, Will Ferrell has agreed to make Anchorman 2.
Like Adam Sandler, Ferrell seems to alternate between attempts at crowd-pleasing (Step Brothers, Land of the Lost, Semi-Pro, Megamind, etc) and more challenging works like Stranger than Fiction, Casa de Mi Padre, and Everything Must Go. Sandler's crowd-pleasers are generally more commercially successful and much less critically lauded, but his more challenging films (Funny People, Reign Over Me, Punch-Drunk Love) are generally better, and certainly more-seen, than Ferrell's. And it surprised me to realize that this is the first sequel either of them has done -- not that anyone was expecting Eight Crazier Nights or An Even Longer Yard.
Look: it it's done well, I will be happy to see Ron Burgundy on my screen again, as well as Brick Tamland and especially the Public News Team ("No commercials. No mercy.") I just hope this gives Ferrell the latitude to keep trying more challenging works as well, and that this doesn't reflect a turn away from trying to create new great comic characters. But as Ben Affleck once reminded us, "You gotta do the safe picture. Then you can do the art picture. But then sometimes you gotta do the payback picture because your friend says you owe him. And sometimes, you have to go back to the well."
"Grown-Ups 2" has a release date of July 2013, so Sandler will almost certainly have made a sequel by the time Anchorman 2 arrives. You can also argue whether "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy" (direct to DVD sequel/sidequel to Anchorman comprised of the original plot for the movie, which got dramatically restructured during shooting) constitutes a sequel.
ReplyDeleteIt remains to be seen if, like milk, this was a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteAdam McKay is back too, right? I need to know if the rest of the crew is coming back. I can't imagine why David Koechner wouldn't jump at the chance, and Paul Rudd always seems up for some Apatow good times. But Steve Carrell? Christina Applegate? Or will they just go in a completely different direction? I need to know details before I can decide how I feel.
ReplyDeleteAnd id you missed this:
ReplyDelete<p><span>http://www.funnyordie.com/lists/132fc708d2/anchorman-2-sequel-ron-burgundy-will-ferrell?playlist=featured_pictures_and_words</span>
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Am I the only person who didn't like Anchorman? I like Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, but this movie bored me to tears. I think I might've seen it in the middle of the day on cable somewhere. Everyone I know loves it--do I need to give it another chance with an open mind, maybe all at once without commercial breaks?
ReplyDeleteFor me, it was the catchphrases that made it. Then, upon repeated viewing, it becomes brilliant.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very strange movie that works in spite of the fact that the entire film's plotline was abandoned and rewritten in the course of making it, and it's clear that that happened when watching it. The cast just throws themselves into it, which is a large part of what makes it work.
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