Pretty good sequel, if not as funnier as the original - it also doesn't have as "fun" a story. The first movie was about a good thing happening in news history, i.e. women being allowed to anchor the news; this is about a bad thing happening in news history i.e. the dumbing down of news. The team of Ferrell and McKay often like to make sharp satirical points in their movies (something for which they never get enough credit for, I feel) - but here it's a bit depressing. (It's kind of like the two magazine war mini series in Australia - the first one was about women's sexual liberation the second one was about trash).
The satire is very strong and there are some excellent gangs. It's also got a nice "comedy of remarriage" plot between Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate, and their son, plus some excellent music (mostly soft rock). And the performances are all strong, not a weak link in the bunch.
On the down side, it's very long (almost two hours) and feels it; there are too many characters, some of whom feel entirely superfluous (why didn't they combine Meagan Good and Dylan Baker's characters) or ill-defined (Megan Good starts off tough, then is sort of evil, then sort of good). Steve Carrell gets a great romance with Kristen Wiig and Josh Lawson is an effective villain as a Junior Rupert Murdoch, but there's no subplot for Paul Rudd and David Koechner, which is a shame (it would have only taken an extra scene or two). And after a while all the cameos stop being fun and start being annoying.
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