The Reviews Are In For 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues' And It Looks (Mostly) Good

Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner are back as everyone's favourite news team in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. It's been almost 10 years since 2004's unparalleled look into the inner workings of local news stations in the 1970's first gave us Ron Burgundy and the rest of the Channel 6 news team and almost a decade later it seems as though they still now how to keep it classy.

On the whole, the early feedback for the much-anticipated sequel s mostly positive. There are a few exceptions of course, with Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times leading the negative reviews. Skarkey, like most of us, is happy that Anchorman is back, but ultimately felt let down by Burgundy's second outing. She wrote, "While I'm glad Anchorman is back - we need a little levity in this year of heavy films - I do wish it were better."

Chris Cabin of Slant Magazine as also left relatively unimpressed by the finished product, commenting that the film largely consists of "hit-or-miss episodic sketches" that are "faintly strung together" by a lacklustre story. He commented further, "The film's half-hearted plea for responsibility and ethics in the news, after joyfully rolling around in its corruption for the majority of its runtime, smacks of plain pandering."

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Those two critiques stand alone in being let down by Ferrell and Adam McKay's latest effort. Claudia Puig of USA Today led the early praise for the movie, and although commenting that "not every scene is equally funny," she was left impressed overall. She wrote, "The movie cleverly spoofs the 24-hour TV news cycle, as well as sexism and racism in the workplace. Not every scene is equally funny, of course, but most of the comic antics generate laughs."

Richard Roeper wrote on his own site that Anchorman 2 is "one of the funniest movies of the year," commending the film's "sharp, dead-on satire." Yet while he was complete besotted by the film, like Puig the general consensus is that opinions on the film are likely to vary depending on your own personal preferences.

"Anchorman 2 is frequently amusing, with your personal hilarity meter likely to rate it higher if you enjoy seeing beloved characters acting even goofier than before," Peter Howell wrote in the Toronto Star. His comments, like many others, focused on how film stays true to the original, whilst also trying to carve out its own identity. Whilst opinions are likely to vary from person to person, chances are you won't be disappointed if you were a fan of the first outing from the Channel Six team, who are now taking on global, 24-hour news.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues arrives in cinemas worldwide on 20 December.

Watch the classy trailer for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues