94 - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Connection To THE OTHER GUYS - Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

Sequels that come out along time after the original, there's always a fear isn't there - if you are a fan of the original, the positives of that film have spent years building up in your mind. I think comedy in-particular might just have the hardest time, the upcoming sequel to Dumb & Dumber as been long-waited and the original is much loved and it's been 20 years (which feels unbelievable I remember going to the cinema twice to see it). Anchorman 2 didn't take quite as long though with 9 years, but it's fair to say it's popularity built up over the next few years after it, so yeah it's got a lot to live up to.

To be honest, the best way to perhaps describe it is as a slightly inferior copy of the original, though the story is different, the elements of the original are certainly there - a rival newscaster, even Veronica and Ron's relationship is somewhat reset to the antagonist elements of the first, there's also the newscaster fight (which is bigger with so many surprise cameos, none of them I will list to not give away the surprises) and thankfully Brick is still... well as Brick as you want him to be.

So I did enjoy it... an important element for me at least of a comedy film is that it needs to be funny and it's funny, and it's probably the callbacks to the first movie that perhaps yield the funniest moments - James Marsden echoing Vince Vaughn from the first movie - funny. Brick being Brick - funny... this time he has a love interest in Kristen Wiig... the newscaster war - funny, among other things, but it feels there is slightly less plot going on here then the first time around and it's a film that doesn't have the same quotability factor (I Love Lamp, whales vagina etc.) but maybe time will tell on that front.

I think the returning characters valubility stayed the same for me - Brick is still the MVP, while others just get to be in his shadow but still have their moments. Of new characters not mentioned Meagan Good is a decent new foil/love interest for Burgundy while Harrison Ford honestly doesn't make that much impact.

Overall, yeah a sequel of diminishing returns but there is still enough funny in here to make it worth a watch, if you didn't like the first one don't bother with this but if you did you'll be suitably entertained.

46 - Hollywood Homicide

Connection To AIR FORCE ONE - Harrison Ford

There's always ultimately one of two choices to go with when picking a film as the connection, especially if it's one I haven't seen - do I go for a film that's known to be at least decent or something that's known to be a bit poo-poo (sorry for the harsh language), I think sometimes that decision lies in the last few films I have watched, if there is a lot badness just been then it needs something awesome to remind me why I like film and the bad film sometimes lies in the curiosity of how bad it might be or what it's reputation is in the so-bad it's good field

Hollywood Homicide stars Hollywood legend Harrison Ford (star of some of the awesome-ist films ever) and not Hollywood Legend Josh Hartnett (actually the star of one of my least favourite films of all time - I won't say what it is but I am anxious to revisit it and do it on here) and reading critical ratings for the film it seems to have bad marks but not quite bad enough (the 30% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes seem to suggest some critics liked it - Roger Ebert liked it apparently), all I can say is that I'm prepared to give this film a chance...

For starters, I can't help but think before multiple rewrites there was a much sharper film in there, but that's just a guess maybe it was like this all along - as a film it had fleeting shining moments but ultimately didn't do too much for me. I did like the idea initially of two cops - both moonlighting in different professions, one as a real estate broker (Harrison Ford) and the other a yoga teacher/wannabe actor (Josh Hartnett), and the two are assigned to investigate a night club shooting involving a rap group.

Ford and Hartnett don't have too bad chemistry if I'm honest and there are times the film threatens to take off, but as an action-comedy it's rarely that funny, and the action is... okay, Isaiah Washington and Dwight Yoakam made decent villains though I think they deserved a better movie around them.

Overall, it's not awful it's just most of the time largely uninspired, maybe if they went the approach of biting satire on Hollywood and rap music we could have had something but alas this is all we get.