Breaking news: Will Ferrell is hilarious again as television journalist Ron Burgundy in ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.’ And public reaction is this: Anyone who liked the first movie needs to go see the second

Although its official release was December 18, select theaters featured this sequel to “Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy” a day earlier, on Tuesday December 17, at 9 pm. This new comedy, built on the success of its first installment, sold out in presales the day before the day it even came out at many theaters.

This movie is a comedy that thrives on what many may regard as a silly and crazy plot. A lot of what happens is unexpected. One highlight is that random celebrities pop up throughout the movie, especially towards the end. It is not comedy alone, though, for a little bit of lighthearted romance appears in it as well.

The story around 1980s television news anchorman Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell) and his marriage to fellow anchor Veronica Corningstone (played by Christina Applegate). They start out as a unified team, but things change after Corningstone lands a job as a full-time anchor, and Burgundy gets fired. This causes the marriage to fall apart, with Ron leaving New York City, his wife and their son Walter. Veronica stays in New York City but Ron leaves. Burgundy moves onto a hosting gig for a dolphin show, but despises the job and becomes  very depressed. Things turn around for Burgundy when he gets a very generous job offer back in New York.  The station will be the first of its kind, featuring news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although Burgundy mocks the concept at first, the salary offer persuades him to check it out. This step in the right direction, gets him back to doing what he does best, reporting the news. He goes out to San Diego to find his old news team.  With the boys all back together, they prepare to be the next thing, only to learn later that executives have put them in the 2 am to 3 am time slot.  In comes Burgundy’s new rival, Jack Lime (played by James Marsden). Burgundy challenges Lime’s status as the “best anchorman in the business” and then engages in a series of feats to prove himself. By the end of the movie Ron has his ups and downs, but he ends up on top, loved by even his former enemies.

Each actor shined at different scenes throughout the film. Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is obviously the central character of the film and its namesake.  His best scene is when he becomes blind, and the news team vists him. Just the way that he acted seemed very realistic but yet still funny. Brick Tamlin (Steve Carell), had his best scene pretty early on in the movie. It is the first time he found the women he loved. This is not the love in the first ‘Anchorman’ movie when he just looks at things in the office and says he loves them. This was actual love. David Koechner’s best scene as Champ Kind is his first scene in the movie. Viewers can tell that he tried to change since the last movie, but is always the loud crazy man he is at his core. Paul Rudd’s best scene as Brian Fantana is when Ron goes to convince him to be a part of the news team again. Brian acts like he moved on, but none of them have really moved on since the last time they talked. Veronica Corningstone acted out by Christina Applegate has her best scene when she finds out she got the job as a full-time anchor and Ron had been fired. She acted it out greatly acting as a real person would if that had happened to them in real life.

There was a ton of things to love about this movie. It was that stupid kind of comedy that has people rolling out of their seats laughing. The acting was amazing.  Directors were looking to imitate the success of the first film with a few variations. The actors rely heavily on the use of facial expressions to convey emotion. Also, there are endless one liners from this movie (which I predict will start being said around the hallways and in popular culture). Every character has one liners that can be used on a daily basis. When I tried to think about things I did not like from this movie, I was stumped. It completely exceeded my expectations.

Despite all the humor in the film, its main message was sentimental: family and friends are the most important things in this world. Without family and friends, nothing else really matters.

The target group of this film appears to be teenagers and young adults (or those who have the sense of humor that typically marks these age groups). However, anyone who likes Will Ferrell, will find all that they love about Ferrell from his previous works will like this movie. It is that stupid kind of comedy that will make you laugh. It is rated Pg-13. This film is the best comedy of the year so far. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.