“Ted” divided most audiences: some loved it; some hated it; with few holding a middle ground. “Ted 2” is much of the same style of humour, so if easily offended best skip this one.
The film starts with Ted marrying his sweetheart and supermarket co-worker Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth), whilst John (Mark Wahlberg)’s relationship with Lori (Mila Kunis from the first film, who could clearly not be tempted back) has already hit the rocks.
Ignoring the fact that consummating the marriage is clearly going to be impossible without an “appendage”, Ted’s attempts to have children draws attention to his legal status as ‘Property’ rather than a ‘Person’. What follows is a legal battle to prove Ted’s humanity, with a sexy young lawyer (Amanda Seyfried) acting as both legal aid for Ted and a rekindling of love interest for John.
As often in Seth Macfarlane films, there is a plethora of cameos, some of them very funny. For example, the human rights lawyer needs to be a “Harrison Ford type of lawyer”, and you’ll never guess who plays the part…? (and no, this isn’t a spoiler – it wasn’t!). My favourite cameo was by Michael Dorn as the strong and silent half of a gay couple: if you know what role Dorn is famous for and link that to where the film’s finale occurs then you have a dodgy costume winner of a belly laugh. (By the way, it’s also worth staying through the interminable end credits for a final humorous cameo).
1000 ways to dispose of a hard drive.
Mark Wahlberg again proves what a good comic actor he is after his roles in the original “Ted” and the underrated “The Other Guys”. And the excellent Giovanni Ribisi (“Friends”) returns in the role of the evil and jealous Donny from the first film, now nearer to the heart of darkness as a Hasbro janitor.
Seth Macfarlane’s Ted is also a comic creation of genius that can get away with highly offensive lines by just looking cute. However, in my view, a line does get crossed with the script a few times in terms of good taste, particularly in terms of numerous black jokes that seem to come at you apace in the middle of the film. (Offence is in the eye of the beholder and I’m not black, so can’t legitimately comment on how close to the knuckle these were).
The multi-talented Macfarlane again directs, and this is a vast improvement on last year’s turgid “A Million Ways to Die in the West”. At 115 minutes the film doesn’t outstay its welcome, but could still in my opinion do with a nip and a tuck in places. As examples, the big Hollywood-style dance number in the opening titles (surely the first since “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”?) is a bit pointless and makes Ted look more false than in the whole of the rest of the film, and a mid-film song by Seyfried seems to be trying to rehash a classic campfire scene from “The Three Amigos” but rather misses the mark.
In summary, if you liked “Ted” you will probably like “Ted 2”. But it has an 18/R rating for a reason, with extensive bad language, sexual references and drug taking (“They move in herds” – LOL) that may offend.
Fad Rating: FFFf.
(Note: red band trailer below):
