R-evisiting Anchorman 2 As The Slow Season Comes To An End

I enjoyed the original cut of Anchorman 2. Though I was surprised to see it push for the PG-13 rating. Then again, the first one was miraculously PG-13 as well. So I was excited to get a more complete version of the film with Paramounts R-rated rerelease of its big time Christmas comedy.

Anchorman 2's R-rated version had a lot going for it. Apparently some poor intern had been forced to compare both versions of the film and count up the differences. The final number was 763. Now that's a little absurd, so of course I had to know what had changed.

And to be honest, 763 new gags really just translated to the same movie... but the good stuff had changed to other (sometimes good, sometimes bad) stuff... while that unnecessary plot stuck around as fully scripted as it always had been. I personally was hoping for a completely different film. Perhaps one where we could have shed those annoying plot points in lieu of more jokes... or rather a shorter run time might have done the trick. Anchorman 2 was entirely too long from the outset. So I don't know why I was so surprised to see it bog itself down once again in that 2 hour and 20 minute anti-timemachine (where time goes slower and you get to your destination much much later than you expected). Did this reiteration of that reiteration really need to go on for 2 hours and 20 minutes?

I say no. It's too bad, because there really were some wonderful new moments. If only they had just existed the first time around and in a much shorter movie. Fair warning: this one's for diehard fans only.