Thoughts on the Official Anchorman 2 Trailer

It's a must that you watch the trailer first before you read this.  Like a prerequisite of sorts.  Trust me, it's worth it.

Not bad huh? This trailer was released a couple of days ago but I caught a glimpse of it for the first time today.  My reaction? Sweet Uncle Jonathan's corn cob pipe!!!! Is it possible that the Apatow/McKay superteam could top the original?!?!? After all, the original Anchorman is one of the most beloved comedies of the last decade and it has had an enormous impact on pop culture.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone drop the "Stay classy, San Diego" reference and the "Well that escalated quickly" line will go down in the Internet history books forever (sidenote: that film is, in my opinion, the greatest comedy film ever  in terms of producing memorable, hilarious one-liners.  The "toilet store," the "glass case of emotion," "I immediately regret this decision," "Whore Island," and "60 percent of the time" are truly indelible).  But after seeing this trailer, fans of the original (myself included) have a lot to be excited about.

We now know that instead of being set in 1970s San Diego, the sequel will be set in 1980s New York City. And instead of being held to the confines of the Channel 4 News, the team is moving onto bigger and better things: an uber-ambitious 24 hour news channel.  THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! I am so glad that Anchorman 2 is not going to fall into the trap of so many sequels before it in delivering THE EXACT SAME MOVIE as the original.  So many other movie sequels (like The Hangover series and the Home Alone series) are guilty of this.  What's the point as an audience of paying good money to watch the exact same movie that you saw years ago?  Props to you Anchorman 2 for not being "one of those" sequels.  In addition, it's the 80s baby!!!! The era of big hair, Pacman, Poprocks and Coke, Cyndi Lauper, and Bueller seems like the perfect backdrop for the genius that is Ron Burgundy.  If you think he did well in the 70s, you should see the kind of stuff he's gonna pull a decade later.  Really digging the move from a small market like San Diego to a huge market like the Big Apple as well.  It should open up a lot of doors for this wrecking crew of a news team.

You stay classy New York City...

I was also tremendously pleased to see that the sequel had maintained Ron Burgundy's entire team: a murderer's row of Brick, Champ, and Brian (played by Steve Carell, David Koechner, and Paul Rudd, respectively) at Burgundy's SIDE to KICK him into shape (what do they call those things again?) One thing I really liked about the original is that while each character had his own weaknesses (Ron has a huge ego, Champ is awfully crass, Brian is kind of a narcissist, and Brick is, well, an idiot), when they united together as one and fed off each other's energies and personalities, they were able to minimize their individual weaknesses and deliver one kick-ass news broadcast.  The chemistry of that news team is unparalleled.  So I'm glad that the entire team is back for an encore (and I'm especially glad that there's no salary cap that the news station has to abide by that would force them to break up that chemistry and trade Brian to the Houston Rockets for 8 months of Kevin Martin and chump change.  See I had to throw in a sports reference somewhere in here!)  It's also great to see Baxter is back too for all you animal lovers out there (all of whom probably had an aneurysm in the first one when Jack Black punted him off the bridge).

FINAL THOUGHTS

 Ron Burgundy was starting to get a Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet-type look there at times which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing.  Just something that caught my eye.

Hello I'm Robert Goulet Da da de da da do

I must admit, I'm pretty intrigued by the new romances the trailer had to show.  Brick's awkward flirting with a new Kristen Wiig character ("I like the parts on your face that are covered with skin") and Ron himself with a new love interest that looks eerily like Serena Williams.  Excited to see what they're gonna do with that.

It's just the trailer but we're already seeing more incredible one-liners.  "I'm gonna do the thing that God put Ron Burgundy on this earth to do.  Have salon-quality hair and read the news!!!" And I literally laughed out loud (it's cliche, I know but the situation calls for it) at the line at the end  "Which one of you convicts with the longest record can pass me the mashed potatoes?"  Racism as comedic material can be hit or miss but I thought in this instance it was spot-on (Sidenote: one YouTube commenter summed it up pretty well in response to other commenters who were offended by the "racism as humor" card: something along the lines of "When you can't laugh at how absurd racism is, then racism wins." Well put.

I found it fitting that Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" played in the background of this trailer.  It's the same song that they played in the background of the last scene of the Sopranos, a scene that I watched again on YouTube yesterday in light of the passing of Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini.  RIP.

And what incredible timing that they would release it on Christmas!! Reason #3781 to look forward to Christmas! Man, I can't wait!

Get ready America.  The Channel 4 News Team is back to chew bubble gum
and kick ass.  And they're all out of bubble gum.