It’s been nine years since the first Anchorman was released (doesn’t that make you feel old?) when it was a moderate hit. Since then it has garnered somewhat of a cult status, spawning Halloween costumes and Quote-Along screenings all over the place.

The idea of making a sequel was a risky one in so far as it could damage the good Anchorman name for fans that hold the first film dear to their comedic hearts. It’s a relief, then, to say that the sequel, while predictably not as good as the first one, is still a consistently funny and hugely quotable effort from Ferrell and Co.

Set many years after the events of the first film, we pick up with Ron (Ferrell) and his now-wife Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) who are successful anchors for a big station in New York. However, when Ron finds out he is being fired he hits rock bottom again.

He is then approached by a producer who offers him the chance to be the lead anchor in a revolutionary 24-hour news station called the Global News Network. After some trepidation Ron accepts and sets out to reunite the news team consisting of Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell). Once there he has to deal with the changing landscape of news reporting as well as face off against hot-shot anchor Jack Lime (James Marsden).

Just as the first one was a satire on the chauvinistic attitudes of the ‘70s and the inflated egos of the famous, the sequel takes a satirical look – albeit a silly one – at the idea of news evolving into something that’s just as much, if not more, about the ratings as reporting the news itself.

Of course that and the rest of the very thin plot is besides the point. This is all about reuniting past loved characters, putting them in a room together and allowing them to spout loud noises (as Brick would say) and eminently quotable one-liners. “You know the old expression: nope!” and “Your hair looks like wet popcorn,” to name but a couple, are destined to adorn t-shirts.

As is the case with most sequels, this takes the most beloved character from the first one, Brick, and puts him more in the spotlight this time around. He’s given a love interest in the form of Kristin Wiig’s Chani Lastname (yeah, that’s the type of humour here) who is basically a female version of him. They share some of the film’s funniest scenes as they awkwardly try to date, even if they don’t know what that is.

The film often takes the approach of having certain scenes that are similar to those found in the first film except taken a little further, notably with the famous news team fight. While arguably redundant it’s nevertheless funny just to see how far they’ll go with it. Not to give too much away but there are certain cameos from various famous people that’s almost worth the price of admission alone.

At two hours it’s too long and there are a few notable subplots that easily could have been trimmed or cut; chief among them is Ron getting involved with his black boss and having dinner with her family, leading to awkward “breaking down the barriers of race by assimilation” that just feels unnecessary for the film as a whole. Nevertheless Anchorman 2 manages to be worthwhile sequel that’s brilliantly silly and chalk full of memorable quotes. It’s not going to convert anyone who doesn’t like the first one but fans can feel good about the fact that it’s turned out well and more than just the cash-in it initially appears to be.

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