The Thunder Buddies— the foul-mouthed pot-smoking Ted the bear (played by Seth McFarlane) and the dim-witted man-child John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) — are back together again to take moviegoers on a movie journey filled with rude jokes, lowbrow physical comedy and (surprisingly) serious dramatic stakes for the titular character.
The film opens with Ted wedding his longtime girlfriend Tammi-Lynn. We then fast-forward a year to see the couple embroiled in some serious marital problems. Taking the advice of a coworker, Ted proposes that he and Tami-Lynn have a baby so they can learn to love each other again. This is where the drama starts. In the court of law Ted is deemed as a piece of property, thus unable to take care of a baby. Ted then embarks on a journey to prove he is indeed human like you and me.
McFarlane, who wrote and directed this film, is most well known as the driving force behind the comedies American Dad and Family Guy. If you are opposed to the brand of humour on that show you are more likely to not enjoy this movie.
I have never watched those two shows before. I watched the first Ted on Saturday before I took in Ted 2 on Sunday night. I laughed at the first one, and there were some moments where I laughed a lot during this sequel. Not to be too specific but some standout moments included a nod to Jurassic Park, a hilarious Liam Neeson cameo and a mishap with sperm. I also found the Ted-John bromantic relationship to once again to be enjoyable.
Amanda Seyfried, who plays a fresh-faced lawyer who shares some of the boys’ bad habits, is strong in nailing her comedic and dramatic moments. I consider her to be an upgrade to what Mila Kunis offered as the main female character in the first film.
I do admire McFarlane’s attempt to make Ted 2 more than just a cheap sequel by having Ted’ experience communicate a strong message that defending everyone’s civil rights are important. However as the film progresses it becomes too much of a melodrama. People expect silly fun when they come to see this film, and not a series of respectable actors (John Slattery, Seyfried and Morgan Freeman) delivering emotionally grandiose speeches on morality. The film’s balance skewed too much toward drama in its second half and not enough towards comedy.
One of Seyfried’s strengths as a performer is her lovely singing voice. While I enjoyed listening to her croon a lovely ballad I found the moment to be too elegant for a film that relishes indecency. A dancing sequence that was played during the opening credits also seemed out-of-place.
Ted 2, like many comedies, had some gags and characters that fell flat. Giovanni Ribisi bordered on being cringe-worthy as the psycho bad guy who takes pride in his urinal cakes.
Ultimately, I feel like I laughed enough to recommend Ted 2. I am giving it a grade of three popcorn buckets out of five.
