It's cool that they were able to get the band back together for this sequel, but is this really the best they could do with the opportunity? Like the second Austin Powers movie, this is a sequel that doesn't even fight to escape from the shadow of its predecessor. Rather than pressing on with new gags in the same spirit as the original, it simply revisits the spots that worked last time and expects us to react the same way. That feels fake to me, forced and empty and criminally over-scripted.

Half the fun of the first Anchorman came from appreciating the improv brilliance of its players, riffing on each other and going above and beyond in an effort to make their buddies break character. That's completely lost this time around, giving way to winks and nods and lame attempts to capture lightning in a bottle by striking the same poses all over again. The magic's gone, and though a few firm laughs do rear their head from time to time, they're nowhere near as powerful nor as free-form as the team's first rodeo.

Even the production values seem third-rate, with a big chunk of the second act looking like it was shot on a sound stage somewhere in TV-land. An ultra-transparent slam against Fox News that, while well-deserved, feels far too easy and largely superficial. What happened, Ron Burgundy? What happened to you?