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- Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Value-Sized Version)
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Value-Sized Version)
Updated
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Genre:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2013
Original Running Time:
118
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
82
Time Cut:
36
Available in HD?
Additional Links:
Brief Synopsis:
Anchorman 2, but funny. And 36 minutes shorter.
Crafted using a mixture of the Theatrical, Unrated, Super-Sized Version, and blu-ray supplemental material, the aim of this edit was to create a funnier, tighter film worthy of being a successor to the first Anchorman. Entire subplots have been removed, and jokes have been pulled from all commercially available material, resulting in a much more focused film and, in my opinion at least, a much funnier one as well.
Crafted using a mixture of the Theatrical, Unrated, Super-Sized Version, and blu-ray supplemental material, the aim of this edit was to create a funnier, tighter film worthy of being a successor to the first Anchorman. Entire subplots have been removed, and jokes have been pulled from all commercially available material, resulting in a much more focused film and, in my opinion at least, a much funnier one as well.
Intention:
While the first Anchorman remains one of my all-time favorite comedies, I hated the sequel. It was way too long, there was too much Brick, the Linda/Ron subplot was unbearable, there wasn't enough focus on the news team or Veronica, and the pacing was a mess. More than anything though, I just didn't find it funny. Matter of fact, there were times where it felt almost offensively unfunny. However, while sitting in the theater opening night, I noticed a trend among some of the jokes. Jokes that were initially funny proceeded to then be beaten into the ground until they were dead and I just wanted to go home. For years I've remembered that and always thought that surely there must be a good film in there somewhere, for if those jokes had just been cut earlier, they would have worked.
That is how this edit came to be. My intention was to turn a comedy that I loathe into a comedy that I can enjoy. I believe I accomplished that.
That is how this edit came to be. My intention was to turn a comedy that I loathe into a comedy that I can enjoy. I believe I accomplished that.
Additional Notes:
So, who is this cut for? Well, I can tell you with a modicum of certainty who it's not for:
- It's definitely not for those who actually liked Anchorman 2. If you have any sort of attachment to the original cuts, then I feel like you may end up disappointed with this edit and miss your favorite bits. Maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully I'm wrong! But as someone who hated Anchorman 2 but loved the first one, I sought to make this film more in line with my personal comedic tastes, so I feel that you may get more mileage out of this edit if you feel the same way I do. So if you liked or loved Anchorman 2, approach with caution. But if you loved the first Anchorman, yet hated the sequel, then please give this a shot!
- If you liked Meagan Good in this film, you will be disappointed. Her role has been severely cut back.
- If you liked Kristen Wiig in this film, you will be disappointed. I've removed her completely.
- If you loved Brick's beefed up role in this film, you will be disappointed. His contributions in this edit are much more in line with how he was presented in the first film, which I find to be much more palatable than having him screaming for half the movie.
Other Sources:
The blu-ray was used for just about everything, with the only additional sources being:
- Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away", purchased from us.7digital.com in FLAC
- Several bits of foley purchased from soundsnap.com
- Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away", purchased from us.7digital.com in FLAC
- Several bits of foley purchased from soundsnap.com
Special Thanks:
Special thanks to Dr. Chim Richalds for bouncing ideas around with me in the forum thread.
Release Information:
Digital
Editing Details:
Most of my process simply involved taking everything that I didn't find funny and either replacing it, removing it, or making it work in some other way. That was the main guideline, while pacing was the other. Believe it or not, I actually never cut anything in the interest of time alone, it just wound up being that much shorter as a result of everything else.
I used the Theatrical cut as a base, pulling bits from the Unrated or Super-Sized Versions whenever I saw fit to do so. I also reinserted a couple deleted scenes along with bits from the gag reels and line-o-ramas. Unfortunately, the quality of some of the deleted scenes is not ideal as they're only available in 480i on the blu-ray, but I did my best to make their reintegration back into the film as seamless as possible. Watching from a comfortable distance on a 39" TV, I found the transitions to be relatively unnoticeable, but your mileage may vary on that one.
I used the Theatrical cut as a base, pulling bits from the Unrated or Super-Sized Versions whenever I saw fit to do so. I also reinserted a couple deleted scenes along with bits from the gag reels and line-o-ramas. Unfortunately, the quality of some of the deleted scenes is not ideal as they're only available in 480i on the blu-ray, but I did my best to make their reintegration back into the film as seamless as possible. Watching from a comfortable distance on a 39" TV, I found the transitions to be relatively unnoticeable, but your mileage may vary on that one.
Cuts and Additions:
Oh boy, here we go. This is a basic list of the cuts, additions, and alterations that I made, using the Theatrical cut as a base.
• Replaced intro with Super-Sized Version's.
• Cut the Drake cameo.
• While it isn't flawless, I was more-or-less able to remove Kristen Wiig's name from the opening credits (I removed her subplot with Brick entirely).
• Elevator dialog replaced with bits from Super-Sized.
• Mack Tannen scene has been tightened and shortened.
• Ron and Veronica's argument at home has been shortened, and a portion of an alternate/deleted scene has been added back in.
• SeaWorld scene is a mixture of Theatrical and Super-Sized versions.
• Ron's explanation to Freddie about what he was doing when he tried to hang himself has been shortened. (Alterations like these were made in order to help the joke land harder, as opposed to the original cut's method of beating a joke to death).
• Diner scene features a line replacement from the Super-Sized version.
• Champ's chicken ad uses line from Super-Sized Version.
• Conversation inside Champ's restaurant has been tightened.
• Scene of getting Brian back on the team uses bits of Super-Sized version, and has been tightened.
• Scene of Brick's funeral uses the Super-Sized version and has been shortened.
• RV scene has been removed. While I enjoyed the the set-up ("One of the best decisions I've ever made is installing this deep-fryer in the Winnebago"), the slow-motion payoff just isn't funny enough and goes on for way too long, so I decided to remove it entirely as there just wasn't enough there to justify keeping it.
• Welcome to GNN/Jack Lime introduction scene uses bits from Super-Sized, and has been shortened.
• Linda Jackson's introduction uses bit from Super-Sized, and has been significantly shortened.
• Brick's "I ain't afraid of no ghost" line has been removed, as has the entire Brick and Chani sequence (Again, Chani is entirely absent from this cut. Sorry, Kristen).
• Ron talking to Veronica at the door uses a line from the Super-Sized version.
• The Ron, Veronica, Greg and Walter scene has been shortened, and uses a bit from the Super-Sized version, along with a line from the Unrated.
• The Jack Lime/Ron confrontation has been slightly shortened.
• Kench Allenby's introduction has been significantly shortened with the help of the Super-Sized version.
• The brainstorming scene uses a line from one of the Gag Reels, a line from one of the Line-o-Ramas, bits and pieces from the Super-Sized version, a line from the Unrated cut, and a portion of the post-credits scene. (phew!)
• Entire Brick and Chani scene has, of course, been removed.
• Deleted scene of the news team and Freddie scrambling to get ready for the 2AM broadcast has been shortened and reinserted.
• Ron's pep talk to himself before the broadcast, along with the short control room scene, has been removed, mainly for pacing reasons.
• The 2AM broadcast sequence uses the Unrated cut as a base, so Brian's repeated uses of the word "vagina" have all been retained.
• Linda Jackson's reaction to Brian's "Top-20-Greatest-Vagina's" story has been replaced with the far less over-acted mug drop from the Super-Sized cut (You're welcome, Meagan Good).
• Champ's "Whammy's" have been cut down from the original 18,000 to a comfortable four.
• Brick's story about the wind has been shortened.
• Linda Jackson storming in and firing the news team has been removed (Sorry, Meagan Good). In its place, portions of an alternate scene wherein the team is fired over the phone have been reinserted.
• The meeting about GNN's first day ratings has been shortened (or rather the Super-Sized Version's cut of the scene has been used instead).
• The News Team in their apartment scene sees some bits replaced and added from an alternate scene, along with a shot or two from the Super-Sized.
• Freddie explaining the ratings has been slightly tightened.
• The short scene of Veronica and Greg watching Ron has been removed in favor of more News Team bits (reinserted from deleted scenes).
• Brian and Brick's advertisements have been removed. In order to accommodate the background music, slightly more dancing has been added from the Super-Sized cut.
• The smoking crack scene switches to the Unrated version as they're lighting up.
• Linda Jackson has been removed from the short Emmy scene.
• After the "Perms for everyone" scene, a large chunk of the movie (00:56:02 to 01:08:53 of the Theatrical cut) has been completely removed. This includes almost the entire Ron/Linda subplot, the Koala airlines subplot (mainly a victim of losing the Ron/Linda stuff), the News Team scene after Linda's "meeting" with Ron (which includes Brian's World Famous Jimmy Cabinet, a.k.a. a weak retread of the first film's cologne cabinet scene, and I don't miss it), Brick's Saint Patty's Day broadcast (good riddance), and Brick and Chani at the soda machine.
• A deleted scene featuring Brian and Champ encountering Jack Lime at a bar has been reinserted, albeit in an altered form, utilizing a portion of the Super-Sized Version's post-credits scene (which is a small alternate portion of this scene).
• The scene of Ron and Walter out for a walk has been extended with bits from the Super-Sized version, and the two of them talking on a bench has been removed entirely.
• Phone call between Ron and Veronica has been shortened to accommodate the removal of the aforementioned bench scene.
• The scene where the News Team leaves Ron has been slightly altered, with a little help from the Super-Sized Version, to remove all traces of the Koala airlines and Chani subplots.
• The first exchange between Greg and Walter at the science fair has been replaced with the Super-Sized Version's.
• Veronica's interview with Yasser Arafat has been replaced with the slightly shorter Super-Sized version of this scene.
• Ron and Linda's exchange during Ron's figure skating routine has been removed. This was a tough cut to make because of the music, but necessary, given that it kind of sort of alludes to their cut romance. Champ's line, "To hell with Ron Burgundy," and Brick's line, "Ron, you should see what you're doing!" were also lost as a result of working around the music to make this cut happen. Not my favorite cut to make, but kind of had to.
• The scene of the News Team visiting Ron in the lighthouse has been tightened a bit with a little help from the Super-Sized Version. Gone are Ron's constant screams of "I'm Bliiiiind!"
• A line replacement from the Super-Sized Version is used during Veronica's return outside of the lighthouse.
• Yet another instance of over-explaining the joke has been removed during Ron and Veronica's chat at the table inside the lighthouse, with the help of the Super-Sized Version.
• The Doby song has been removed. Sorry. While I like the idea of it, the song itself isn't actually very funny, and a funny idea alone can only get you so far. The Super Sized Version of this scene was used in its place. Unfortunately, this also meant the loss of the funnier version of Walter's line about Doby eating people, but so be it. Lesser of two evils.
• One more instance of Ron screaming "I'm blind!" was removed after he crashed the car.
• Chani was removed from Ron's return to the office.
• Linda talking to Ron before Veronica arrives has been shortened to remove any allusions to their (non-existent in this cut) relationship. As a result, Veronica and Linda trading barbs has also been removed, but I would have removed it anyway because I hate it.
• Removed a few bits of Linda Jackson lines before Ron's broadcast.
• Any allusions to the dropped Koala airlines subplot during Ron's broadcast have been removed. A shot from the Super-Sized Version was used to help achieve this.
• Ron's apologies to Brian and Champ were removed; Brian's because it was a part of the Koala airlines subplot, and Champ's simply because it would have been odd of Ron to apologize to both Brick and Champ, but not Brian. I didn't necessarily like having to do this, but it's one of those necessary evils when removing subplots.
• Brian's line about assholes from the Unrated cut has been reinserted.
• For Ron's exit from the GNN building, I used the Super-Sized Version, which very conveniently contains no trace of the Linda Jackson and Koala Airlines subplots.
• Removed Kanye West from the news brawl.
• Used the Unrated cut for the Entertainment News Team entrance.
• Used the Super-Sized cut for Will Smith's ESPN All Sports entrance.
• Removed Mack Tannen from the News Brawl. This was a remarkably easy decision to make, given that he doesn't actually appear at all in the fight itself, at least not in the Theatrical/Unrated cuts.
• Had to zoom-in a bit on the shot of Ron walking into the middle of the news teams in order to push Kanye's character mostly out of frame.
• Replaced Tina Fey's "I'm so horny right now" line with a bit from Jim Carrey taken from the Super-Sized Version. This was another lesser of two evils situation. On the one hand, more of Jim Carrey means the Canadian News Team bit has more potential to wear thin earlier on. On the other hand, I found Tina's line to be embarrassingly unfunny, which kills me because I normally love Tina Fey. In the end, Jim Carrey won out.
• Because I added another "Sorry" joke from the Canadian News Team almost immediately prior, I removed the "Sorry" from the end of Carrey's "What do we look like? Rookies?" in an effort to keep that bit from wearing too thin.
• I used the Super-Sized Version for El Trousias, while also shortening it.
• Removed Stonewall Jackson's "Give your soul to me"/"Mint julep" stuff.
• Removed the whole Wes Mantooth segment. As much as I like seeing Wes Mantooth again, the scene stops the film dead in its tracks, consists entirely of lazy callbacks to the first Anchorman, and not a single joke lands.
• The Super-Sized Version ends the film with the father/son reunion at the piano recital, with the "Son, I fought a minotaur to be here" line pulled from the Theatrical. The wedding scene is, of course, skipped entirely, and we instead go straight from the recital to the end credits.
• End credits for the cast and songs have been altered a bit to reflect the removed characters (I had some fun with this). An editing credit for myself has also been added.
• For the post credits scene, I just used the Brick under the table portion, as I used the opening shot in the actual film itself.
TL;DR: Just about everything was altered in some way.
• Some bits of foley were used during the Brian/Champ bar scene and Ron's figure skating number to help with additions and cuts.
• Replaced intro with Super-Sized Version's.
• Cut the Drake cameo.
• While it isn't flawless, I was more-or-less able to remove Kristen Wiig's name from the opening credits (I removed her subplot with Brick entirely).
• Elevator dialog replaced with bits from Super-Sized.
• Mack Tannen scene has been tightened and shortened.
• Ron and Veronica's argument at home has been shortened, and a portion of an alternate/deleted scene has been added back in.
• SeaWorld scene is a mixture of Theatrical and Super-Sized versions.
• Ron's explanation to Freddie about what he was doing when he tried to hang himself has been shortened. (Alterations like these were made in order to help the joke land harder, as opposed to the original cut's method of beating a joke to death).
• Diner scene features a line replacement from the Super-Sized version.
• Champ's chicken ad uses line from Super-Sized Version.
• Conversation inside Champ's restaurant has been tightened.
• Scene of getting Brian back on the team uses bits of Super-Sized version, and has been tightened.
• Scene of Brick's funeral uses the Super-Sized version and has been shortened.
• RV scene has been removed. While I enjoyed the the set-up ("One of the best decisions I've ever made is installing this deep-fryer in the Winnebago"), the slow-motion payoff just isn't funny enough and goes on for way too long, so I decided to remove it entirely as there just wasn't enough there to justify keeping it.
• Welcome to GNN/Jack Lime introduction scene uses bits from Super-Sized, and has been shortened.
• Linda Jackson's introduction uses bit from Super-Sized, and has been significantly shortened.
• Brick's "I ain't afraid of no ghost" line has been removed, as has the entire Brick and Chani sequence (Again, Chani is entirely absent from this cut. Sorry, Kristen).
• Ron talking to Veronica at the door uses a line from the Super-Sized version.
• The Ron, Veronica, Greg and Walter scene has been shortened, and uses a bit from the Super-Sized version, along with a line from the Unrated.
• The Jack Lime/Ron confrontation has been slightly shortened.
• Kench Allenby's introduction has been significantly shortened with the help of the Super-Sized version.
• The brainstorming scene uses a line from one of the Gag Reels, a line from one of the Line-o-Ramas, bits and pieces from the Super-Sized version, a line from the Unrated cut, and a portion of the post-credits scene. (phew!)
• Entire Brick and Chani scene has, of course, been removed.
• Deleted scene of the news team and Freddie scrambling to get ready for the 2AM broadcast has been shortened and reinserted.
• Ron's pep talk to himself before the broadcast, along with the short control room scene, has been removed, mainly for pacing reasons.
• The 2AM broadcast sequence uses the Unrated cut as a base, so Brian's repeated uses of the word "vagina" have all been retained.
• Linda Jackson's reaction to Brian's "Top-20-Greatest-Vagina's" story has been replaced with the far less over-acted mug drop from the Super-Sized cut (You're welcome, Meagan Good).
• Champ's "Whammy's" have been cut down from the original 18,000 to a comfortable four.
• Brick's story about the wind has been shortened.
• Linda Jackson storming in and firing the news team has been removed (Sorry, Meagan Good). In its place, portions of an alternate scene wherein the team is fired over the phone have been reinserted.
• The meeting about GNN's first day ratings has been shortened (or rather the Super-Sized Version's cut of the scene has been used instead).
• The News Team in their apartment scene sees some bits replaced and added from an alternate scene, along with a shot or two from the Super-Sized.
• Freddie explaining the ratings has been slightly tightened.
• The short scene of Veronica and Greg watching Ron has been removed in favor of more News Team bits (reinserted from deleted scenes).
• Brian and Brick's advertisements have been removed. In order to accommodate the background music, slightly more dancing has been added from the Super-Sized cut.
• The smoking crack scene switches to the Unrated version as they're lighting up.
• Linda Jackson has been removed from the short Emmy scene.
• After the "Perms for everyone" scene, a large chunk of the movie (00:56:02 to 01:08:53 of the Theatrical cut) has been completely removed. This includes almost the entire Ron/Linda subplot, the Koala airlines subplot (mainly a victim of losing the Ron/Linda stuff), the News Team scene after Linda's "meeting" with Ron (which includes Brian's World Famous Jimmy Cabinet, a.k.a. a weak retread of the first film's cologne cabinet scene, and I don't miss it), Brick's Saint Patty's Day broadcast (good riddance), and Brick and Chani at the soda machine.
• A deleted scene featuring Brian and Champ encountering Jack Lime at a bar has been reinserted, albeit in an altered form, utilizing a portion of the Super-Sized Version's post-credits scene (which is a small alternate portion of this scene).
• The scene of Ron and Walter out for a walk has been extended with bits from the Super-Sized version, and the two of them talking on a bench has been removed entirely.
• Phone call between Ron and Veronica has been shortened to accommodate the removal of the aforementioned bench scene.
• The scene where the News Team leaves Ron has been slightly altered, with a little help from the Super-Sized Version, to remove all traces of the Koala airlines and Chani subplots.
• The first exchange between Greg and Walter at the science fair has been replaced with the Super-Sized Version's.
• Veronica's interview with Yasser Arafat has been replaced with the slightly shorter Super-Sized version of this scene.
• Ron and Linda's exchange during Ron's figure skating routine has been removed. This was a tough cut to make because of the music, but necessary, given that it kind of sort of alludes to their cut romance. Champ's line, "To hell with Ron Burgundy," and Brick's line, "Ron, you should see what you're doing!" were also lost as a result of working around the music to make this cut happen. Not my favorite cut to make, but kind of had to.
• The scene of the News Team visiting Ron in the lighthouse has been tightened a bit with a little help from the Super-Sized Version. Gone are Ron's constant screams of "I'm Bliiiiind!"
• A line replacement from the Super-Sized Version is used during Veronica's return outside of the lighthouse.
• Yet another instance of over-explaining the joke has been removed during Ron and Veronica's chat at the table inside the lighthouse, with the help of the Super-Sized Version.
• The Doby song has been removed. Sorry. While I like the idea of it, the song itself isn't actually very funny, and a funny idea alone can only get you so far. The Super Sized Version of this scene was used in its place. Unfortunately, this also meant the loss of the funnier version of Walter's line about Doby eating people, but so be it. Lesser of two evils.
• One more instance of Ron screaming "I'm blind!" was removed after he crashed the car.
• Chani was removed from Ron's return to the office.
• Linda talking to Ron before Veronica arrives has been shortened to remove any allusions to their (non-existent in this cut) relationship. As a result, Veronica and Linda trading barbs has also been removed, but I would have removed it anyway because I hate it.
• Removed a few bits of Linda Jackson lines before Ron's broadcast.
• Any allusions to the dropped Koala airlines subplot during Ron's broadcast have been removed. A shot from the Super-Sized Version was used to help achieve this.
• Ron's apologies to Brian and Champ were removed; Brian's because it was a part of the Koala airlines subplot, and Champ's simply because it would have been odd of Ron to apologize to both Brick and Champ, but not Brian. I didn't necessarily like having to do this, but it's one of those necessary evils when removing subplots.
• Brian's line about assholes from the Unrated cut has been reinserted.
• For Ron's exit from the GNN building, I used the Super-Sized Version, which very conveniently contains no trace of the Linda Jackson and Koala Airlines subplots.
• Removed Kanye West from the news brawl.
• Used the Unrated cut for the Entertainment News Team entrance.
• Used the Super-Sized cut for Will Smith's ESPN All Sports entrance.
• Removed Mack Tannen from the News Brawl. This was a remarkably easy decision to make, given that he doesn't actually appear at all in the fight itself, at least not in the Theatrical/Unrated cuts.
• Had to zoom-in a bit on the shot of Ron walking into the middle of the news teams in order to push Kanye's character mostly out of frame.
• Replaced Tina Fey's "I'm so horny right now" line with a bit from Jim Carrey taken from the Super-Sized Version. This was another lesser of two evils situation. On the one hand, more of Jim Carrey means the Canadian News Team bit has more potential to wear thin earlier on. On the other hand, I found Tina's line to be embarrassingly unfunny, which kills me because I normally love Tina Fey. In the end, Jim Carrey won out.
• Because I added another "Sorry" joke from the Canadian News Team almost immediately prior, I removed the "Sorry" from the end of Carrey's "What do we look like? Rookies?" in an effort to keep that bit from wearing too thin.
• I used the Super-Sized Version for El Trousias, while also shortening it.
• Removed Stonewall Jackson's "Give your soul to me"/"Mint julep" stuff.
• Removed the whole Wes Mantooth segment. As much as I like seeing Wes Mantooth again, the scene stops the film dead in its tracks, consists entirely of lazy callbacks to the first Anchorman, and not a single joke lands.
• The Super-Sized Version ends the film with the father/son reunion at the piano recital, with the "Son, I fought a minotaur to be here" line pulled from the Theatrical. The wedding scene is, of course, skipped entirely, and we instead go straight from the recital to the end credits.
• End credits for the cast and songs have been altered a bit to reflect the removed characters (I had some fun with this). An editing credit for myself has also been added.
• For the post credits scene, I just used the Brick under the table portion, as I used the opening shot in the actual film itself.
TL;DR: Just about everything was altered in some way.
• Some bits of foley were used during the Brian/Champ bar scene and Ron's figure skating number to help with additions and cuts.
User reviews
6 reviews
Overall rating
9.5
Audio/Video Quality
9.8(6)
Audio Editing
10.0(6)
Visual Editing
9.8(6)
Narrative
9.0(6)
Enjoyment
9.0(6)
Overall rating
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
7.0
Enjoyment
7.0
My recommendation for this edit is a qualified "yes"... I probably did not take the editor's warning on the description seriously enough. Seriously, unless you HATED Anchorman 2, there's a good chance that this edit will cut things that you liked.
Firstly, technical bits: audio was great, new song edited in seamlessly. Video crops and trims were done very well, and only on one occasion did I even notice any difference in the fidelity of the video footage. Really well done on converting that to be near-seamless.
So now it comes down to a matter of taste. Comedies are highly subjective, and while I admit that a great many of the jokes in Anchorman 2 didn't land with me, some did. And a few were hysterical. Unfortunately, pretty much everything is cut out of this one. Which might be okay if it were replaced with other awesome jokes, but mostly it isn't. We lose most of the horrible stuff and most of the great stuff and are given mostly mediocre stuff. So the overall film is indeed tighter, but nothing new was really that funny, so the end result is entirely inconsequential and disposable. I actually think I might prefer the original, just for those few highest of highs.
The description of the edit is to cut bits that "went on far too long", and admittedly that's an issue with the original. On the other hand, it's part of what made the first Anchorman (and Ferrell in general) so funny. Sometimes a bit isn't that funny at first, but then the player keeps working it until it becomes so ridiculous that it comes back around to being funny again. No scene is given the time to develop in that way here. Replacements also don't work. The shark bit (and Ron's son in general) are actually stupid and annoying. It's the song that pushes it so far that it comes back to being funny. Walter is trimmed too much here and is just back to being annoying. Everything at the lighthouse is cut down until it's dull. Brick is mercilessly cut (including his romance sub-plot, arguably the funniest scenes of the film) leaving him with only one-liners. But there is no "I love lamp" here. His one-liners are mostly horrible.
Rudd comes off the best in this edit with additional material as Fantana, because, well, Rudd is just always great. He becomes almost a believable character in this. But that's not the movie I wanted to see. I missed the big RV scene. I missed some Greg Kinnear stuff. I actually didn't realize how many bits of Anchorman 2 worked for me until I saw the alternate takes they didn't use! It's a comedy, so this will be entirely subjective, but for me this becomes less of a broad comedy and more of a satire. And hey, it's Adam McKay, the satire of CNN and Fox is on point! But it's just not interesting enough to sustain the film, which just presents a few chuckles now. I wanted guffaws.
So: if you HATED Anchorman 2, you might like this. It's that different. I guess I would've preferred more of just a trim to what was already there. All thanks to the editor besides...this was very well done, just not to my taste.
Firstly, technical bits: audio was great, new song edited in seamlessly. Video crops and trims were done very well, and only on one occasion did I even notice any difference in the fidelity of the video footage. Really well done on converting that to be near-seamless.
So now it comes down to a matter of taste. Comedies are highly subjective, and while I admit that a great many of the jokes in Anchorman 2 didn't land with me, some did. And a few were hysterical. Unfortunately, pretty much everything is cut out of this one. Which might be okay if it were replaced with other awesome jokes, but mostly it isn't. We lose most of the horrible stuff and most of the great stuff and are given mostly mediocre stuff. So the overall film is indeed tighter, but nothing new was really that funny, so the end result is entirely inconsequential and disposable. I actually think I might prefer the original, just for those few highest of highs.
The description of the edit is to cut bits that "went on far too long", and admittedly that's an issue with the original. On the other hand, it's part of what made the first Anchorman (and Ferrell in general) so funny. Sometimes a bit isn't that funny at first, but then the player keeps working it until it becomes so ridiculous that it comes back around to being funny again. No scene is given the time to develop in that way here. Replacements also don't work. The shark bit (and Ron's son in general) are actually stupid and annoying. It's the song that pushes it so far that it comes back to being funny. Walter is trimmed too much here and is just back to being annoying. Everything at the lighthouse is cut down until it's dull. Brick is mercilessly cut (including his romance sub-plot, arguably the funniest scenes of the film) leaving him with only one-liners. But there is no "I love lamp" here. His one-liners are mostly horrible.
Rudd comes off the best in this edit with additional material as Fantana, because, well, Rudd is just always great. He becomes almost a believable character in this. But that's not the movie I wanted to see. I missed the big RV scene. I missed some Greg Kinnear stuff. I actually didn't realize how many bits of Anchorman 2 worked for me until I saw the alternate takes they didn't use! It's a comedy, so this will be entirely subjective, but for me this becomes less of a broad comedy and more of a satire. And hey, it's Adam McKay, the satire of CNN and Fox is on point! But it's just not interesting enough to sustain the film, which just presents a few chuckles now. I wanted guffaws.
So: if you HATED Anchorman 2, you might like this. It's that different. I guess I would've preferred more of just a trim to what was already there. All thanks to the editor besides...this was very well done, just not to my taste.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
M
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
I remember reading a review of this movie in Empire Magazine at the time of its release which concluded "it needs a good edit." TheMilkmanConspiracy has now provided this!
This “Value sized edition” is a vast improvement on the theatrical release – funnier, snappier and with some of the tedious sub-plots (e.g. Brick’s romance) removed altogether. It flows very well and I didn’t notice any jumps or edits. Even the alternate/deleted scenes that have been added back in are seamless.
This edits is the perfect follow up to the original.
This “Value sized edition” is a vast improvement on the theatrical release – funnier, snappier and with some of the tedious sub-plots (e.g. Brick’s romance) removed altogether. It flows very well and I didn’t notice any jumps or edits. Even the alternate/deleted scenes that have been added back in are seamless.
This edits is the perfect follow up to the original.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
B
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Anchorman 2 was a total wreck the first time I watched it. And I was 11 then, so that's saying something...
This edit actually made the movie enjoyable, and I didn't note a single issue with editing or quality.
This edit actually made the movie enjoyable, and I didn't note a single issue with editing or quality.
M
Overall rating
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
10.0
A wonderful edit that keeps the pace just as smooth as the first Anchorman and makes a lot of intelligent, well-thought out trims in order to keep it close to the spirit of the original. I love Anchorman 2 as is, but I think I love this one even more.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
F
(Updated: July 09, 2019)
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Personally, I enjoyed the theatrical cut – so this edit technically wasn’t for me. Having seen the theatrical twice, my feelings towards it have been that the film is messy and overblown, but ultimately still pretty funny. I laughed a lot both times during my watches, but there were certainly moments of cringe and points where jokes were milked too hard. Unnecessary sub-plots dragged the film down, and at nearly 2 hours it really felt like a bit of a slog. Given that the editor didn't like the film at all, I wasn't sure what to expect with this - but I was curious to see what had been done to improve things.
QUALITY
SD footage blended really well with HD. I think the only time I actually noticed the shift in quality was with the deleted scene with Jack Lame in the pub. I didn’t really think about it during the scene, but I noticed how much crisper the following footage was.
Audio sounded great.
VISUAL
Visual editing was very good. I noticed maybe 2 cuts..? One of which was after Ron is explaining himself after falling from the light. These were minor nitpicks though, and I’m not really sure if it was that the cuts were slightly rushed or if it was simply that I knew a joke was meant to go on longer.
I did notice that the fingers counting down at 31:19 seem to have a pretty jittery slowdown effect on it. I wasn't sure if this was how it was on the footage or if it was something the editor had done.
AUDIO
I didn’t notice a single audio cut, and I was watching this in 5.1 on a pretty decent system. There was a bit of re-scoring done as well, so hats off to the editor for pulling that off so slickly.
NARRATIVE
The main reason I watched this edit was to see how the narrative was improved. I already thought the film was fairly funny, but I knew the story and pacing were all over the place. I can say with confidence that it was well worth the watch. The film is both funnier and tighter. I did feel the length a little bit at about the hour mark, but ultimately what has been cut has improved things vastly. 2 of the things I disliked the most about the theatrical was the Linda/Ron relationship and the Koala airlines sub-plot. Koala Airlines I think was cut out of necessity, but it really does make sense. It isn’t funny or interesting and it just fills the film out unnecessarily.
I remember quite enjoying some of Brick’s romance sub-plot, but I understand why it was cut, and the pacing benefits as a result.
I marked narrative down by a point for 1 reason – I felt that the scene in which Linda meets Veronica was unnecessary and out of place. It wasn’t jarring, and I think it just about worked, but the atmosphere/tone of the scene clearly alludes to a relationship that is no longer included in the film. It looked to me like the scene could have worked with just Veronica, so I thought it odd that it was kept the way it was.
ENJOYMENT
I really enjoyed this. There were a couple of things I found funny that didn’t make the cut (I actually like Ron feeling the need to remind people that he’s blind, particularly when it related to things that blindness in no way affects), but this is subjective.
Despite having watched the theatrical twice, I couldn’t really tell most of the time which lines were new and which weren’t - all I know is that this felt far more satisfying than the original. The narrative and pacing was much tighter and the humour was more consistent, so I believe the editor has achieved their goal.
Would I watch again? Yes.
Would I recommend? Yes.
Excellent work, Milkman.
QUALITY
SD footage blended really well with HD. I think the only time I actually noticed the shift in quality was with the deleted scene with Jack Lame in the pub. I didn’t really think about it during the scene, but I noticed how much crisper the following footage was.
Audio sounded great.
VISUAL
Visual editing was very good. I noticed maybe 2 cuts..? One of which was after Ron is explaining himself after falling from the light. These were minor nitpicks though, and I’m not really sure if it was that the cuts were slightly rushed or if it was simply that I knew a joke was meant to go on longer.
I did notice that the fingers counting down at 31:19 seem to have a pretty jittery slowdown effect on it. I wasn't sure if this was how it was on the footage or if it was something the editor had done.
AUDIO
I didn’t notice a single audio cut, and I was watching this in 5.1 on a pretty decent system. There was a bit of re-scoring done as well, so hats off to the editor for pulling that off so slickly.
NARRATIVE
The main reason I watched this edit was to see how the narrative was improved. I already thought the film was fairly funny, but I knew the story and pacing were all over the place. I can say with confidence that it was well worth the watch. The film is both funnier and tighter. I did feel the length a little bit at about the hour mark, but ultimately what has been cut has improved things vastly. 2 of the things I disliked the most about the theatrical was the Linda/Ron relationship and the Koala airlines sub-plot. Koala Airlines I think was cut out of necessity, but it really does make sense. It isn’t funny or interesting and it just fills the film out unnecessarily.
I remember quite enjoying some of Brick’s romance sub-plot, but I understand why it was cut, and the pacing benefits as a result.
I marked narrative down by a point for 1 reason – I felt that the scene in which Linda meets Veronica was unnecessary and out of place. It wasn’t jarring, and I think it just about worked, but the atmosphere/tone of the scene clearly alludes to a relationship that is no longer included in the film. It looked to me like the scene could have worked with just Veronica, so I thought it odd that it was kept the way it was.
ENJOYMENT
I really enjoyed this. There were a couple of things I found funny that didn’t make the cut (I actually like Ron feeling the need to remind people that he’s blind, particularly when it related to things that blindness in no way affects), but this is subjective.
Despite having watched the theatrical twice, I couldn’t really tell most of the time which lines were new and which weren’t - all I know is that this felt far more satisfying than the original. The narrative and pacing was much tighter and the humour was more consistent, so I believe the editor has achieved their goal.
Would I watch again? Yes.
Would I recommend? Yes.
Excellent work, Milkman.
T