Ted 2 (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 115 minutes
Directed by: Seth MacFarlane
Voicing of: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Giovanni Ribisi, Morgan Freeman, John Slattery, Patrick Warburton, Michael Dorn, Bill Smitrovich, Cocoa Brown, John Carroll Lynch, Ron Canada, Richard Schiff
KRS Releasing Ltd
After cashing in more than €500 million at the box office, it was no small wonder that the cursing and over-the-top randy teddy from 2010’s Ted would return in a sequel.
Seth MacFarlane is back with another movie in the same vein and with the hit-and-miss style of laughs that had made the first picture such a success.
The director here shows his satiric edge and bite that give the movie an edge even when some of the jokes fall astray. The film, however, has a bromance feel to it that provides it with its core and holds all the wild antics together. It raunchily flows around this tangible and heartfelt relationship between a naughty teddy bear and a young man who is a bit on the dim side of things.
Talking teddy bear Ted (voiced by MacFarlane) is leading a happy life as he is now married to dream girl Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth), who works as a checkout girl at a nearby store in Boston. For John (Mark Wahlberg), however, life has not turned to be as sweet as he is now divorced.
Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have children even though Ted has a problem as he does not have all the anatomical features in order to reproduce and make a child, even though he enjoys sex a lot.
They also discover that Tami-Lynn cannot have children due to her past experience with drugs. Thus the two try to adopt and that is when doubts are placed into what exactly is the state of being of Ted. He is considered a property which can talk and so cannot adopt.
It is rib-breaking funny in certain moments and will make for enjoyable pub retelling experiences
Ted and John end up getting young lawyer Samantha Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) to take his case to court. Ted wants to be seen as an individual rather than a toy gone rogue. However Ted’s archenemy resurfaces. Donny (Giovanni Ribisi), who had wanted a teddy bear all his life, ends up in cahoots with Tom Jessup (John Carroll Lynch), who is the leader of a toy company.
The objective here is to cut Ted open and see what exactly makes this teddy bear so unique.
MacFarlane manages to return to his old haunting ground successfully, something which is especially difficult when the genre is a comedy and the novelty has worn off. He filled the film with one sequence after another of gags which are rib-breaking funny in certain moments and will make for enjoyable pub retelling experiences.
Ted 2 also revolves around what makes Ted tick. His quest for equality and a sense of identity is both existential and funny.
The film also benefits from some interesting and funny cameos and bit parts. Sam J. Jones is a laugh-a-minute as himself and Liam Neeson is there in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sequence that will have the audience in stitches.
Seyfried glides into her role of love interest (replacing Mila Kunis of the first film) effortlessly . Her role is that of a lawyer with a penchant for doing bad stuff and she is game enough to withstand all that Ted throws at her.
MacFarlane succeeds on many counts as he delivers a whole mix of comedy styles. His attempts at gross-out comedy, such as when the duo enters a sperm fertility donor clinic, are utterly crass and funny.
It is in moments like these that one realises how much the director is investing in making sure to squeeze all he can from each moment.
The film includes legal courtroom battles, a showdown at a comic convention, an evil toy company and a whole cupboard of obsessive compulsiveness and sex-crazed fixations that would make a lad crazy, let alone a sexless talking randy teddy bear! A real hoot!