Ted 2 (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law.

My Take – There are rarely comedies which come up with a novel concept & make it work well as an R rated film!! Director – writer – actor (usually voice acting) Seth McFarlene needs no introduction, if you are interested in checking out some of his awesome work tune up to American Dad & Family Guy & you would know why he is such a comedic genius (not counting his last year’s live action debut A Million Ways to Die in the West). Who could have thought a buddy comedy starring Mark Wahlberg & a trash talking teddy bear could work? That too so well!! For obvious reasons, after seeing the first film, I was more than excited for a sequel. As most comedy sequels to comedies go, I didn’t expect this to be as good as the first one & I was right! The film has enough moments to classify itself as an enjoyable raunchy comedy, yet compared to its mammoth expectations, the film is kind of a let down. I do believe writing comedy is difficult as it relies on two principles; that all comedy is based on misery and that it needs to remain unpredictable. It’s hard for comics to remain unpredictable because they tend to stick with the methods that work best for a laugh and if you watch something like The Three Stooges or Monty Python or even Adam Sandler movies long enough, you’ll definitely notice a pattern.

When the joke starts to remain repetitive, the best thing to do is to fold the act and try something else, more unexpected that an audience would have not seen coming. That is the case of this film, instead of developing & moving forward this film almost repeats itself just like Hangover Part II did to itself. Nevertheless, the gags are still funny, especially during the scene when Ted and John were visiting the hospital to get sperm for Ted’s baby. There are a few gross-out scenes that may not be funny to everyone, the hospital scene being a perfect example. It contained plenty of hilarious dialogue that had me laughing almost constantly. Yes, the dialogue is pretty raunchy and vulgar like it was in the first film, or perhaps even more so at times. The story follows Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlene) who has married Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth), his feisty girlfriend from the first film. One year’s passes by, they begin dealing with marital problems until Ted hatches an idea for them to have a baby, hoping it would solve marriage problems. His plans only ends harder than he expected. To make matter worse, the government rules that Ted is not a human citizen, which results in him losing his job, losing his bank account, and having his marriage with Tami-Lynn annulled. In attempt to get his life back together, Ted and his buddy John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), who is also divorced from his wife Lori Collins (Mila Kunis was unable to reprise his role for unknown reasons) decide to get help from a lawyer named Sam (Amanda Seyfried) to win back his civil rights. Unknown to them Ted’s old enemy Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) is plotting his revenge against him. John is right at Ted’s side through all the little guy’s challenges in this movie (“thunder buddies for life”!) and they’re both as incorrigible as in the previous movie, mocking each others misfortunes, playing pranks on each other, occasionally fighting, and often smoking weed, drinking and making comments and behaving in ways that would be considered highly inappropriate in polite society. Fortunately for us, they don’t care much about being polite, and fortunately for them, Samantha bonds with them both and gives her all to representing them in court. Throughout the movie, we’re treated to all manner of crass and politically incorrect humor, along with great supporting turns by Patrick Warburton as a gay bully, Morgan Freeman as a famous civil rights lawyer, and “Flash Gordon” actor Sam Jones as himself, plus hilarious cameos by, among others, Tom Brady and Liam Neeson. And since this movie comes from the mind of the man who created TV’s “Family Guy”, there are pop culture and historical references galore, including songs, TV shows and movies from several different decades, helped to no small degree by a key scene at a New York City Comic-Con, with most of the participants dressing as their favorite comic book or sci-fi characters.

Oh, and when the movie’s over be sure to stay to the very end of the credits. Trust me. The last thing Hollywood wants to do is either insult or offend individuals, groups, races, religions, causes, genders, and ideologies with their films. The refreshing thing about the hilarious teddy bear satire “Ted” and its unapologetic sequel is that neither have any such compunctions. Seth MacFarlane, who co-scripted, directed, and provided the titular teddy bear’s voice, spends most of the film saying and showing subject matter most respectable people would think twice about before either saying or showing. While the previous installment focused more on John’s tribunals of life due to the presence of his talking bear, this time around he is reduced to being a sidekick & for a guy like me who found Mark way more hilarious in the 1st film, its kind of disappointing. Ted the talking teddy still looks as adorable as he did in first film. You never get the impression the cast was interacting with nothing when the CGI Ted was on-screen with them. While Ted dominates the action with his woes, Mark Wahlberg’s John stands out as his best friend. Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane still have great chemistry, as if they’ve been friends for a long time. Amanda Seyfried does well as the young lawyer and new love interest for John. But this is where my biggest problem lies. The story of Ted revolved around John and Lori getting together and working around Ted. The fact that the sequel decided to leave the first love interest out is kind of disheartening. On the whole, ‘Ted 2’ has its set of amusing gags, yet never manages to raise above his average gross out comedy level unlike its lovable predecessor. Nevertheless, if you are in mood for some vulgar humor, this is the right film for you.