Ted 2 - directed by Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Morgan Freeman, Jessica Barth, Sam Jones, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Warburton, Michael Dorn, John Slattery, John Carroll Lynch, Liam Neeson, Bill Smitrovich
Running Time: 116 minutes
Rated: R16 - Frequent profanity and drug use - same as first one
The first Ted movie was a brilliantly funny shot out of the blue.
It was a crazy idea delivered with an astonishingly profane anything goes style.
Of course it was a hit and it deserved to be.
One of the things that made Ted work extra well for me was that it arrived at a time when I was starting to get used to seeing comedies and laughing a couple of times and feeling grateful for it.
Ted was hilarious from go to wo - a rarity.
It cost $50,000,000 and took in exactly eleven times that.
Obviously a sequel would be required and in this case it was a requirement that I am fully behind.
In between Ted movies Seth MacFarlane hosted the Oscars and directed "A Million Ways To Die In the West" - an overlong movie that had some good moments but was largely a failure.
In Ted 2 we find that John (Wahlberg) has split from Lori (Mila Kunis) who he married at the end of the first movie and Ted and Tami-Lyn (the great Jessica Barth) are themselves about to tie the knot.
The rapid disposal of Kunis is even more expedient than that of Megan Fox in Transformers 3 or Alice Eve from the Entourage movie.
It just didn't work out we are told.
Trouble begins when Ted tries to adopt a baby to save his marriage and the authorities realise that he shouldn't have been afforded the rights of a person because he isn't one.
There is an awful lot wrong with the idea here given that the first movie dealt with this issue (after a fashion) but when all is said and done it really doesn't matter.
The universe of Ted is not remotely about reality- nor should it be.
Ted finds his marriage annulled, adoption denied and his employment terminated.
He lawyers up to fight for his right to be recognised as a person with the rights that go along with it.
The ever scheming Donny (Ribisi) who now works for Hasbro sees the chance to get hold of the object of his obsession and approaches the head of the company (John Carroll Lynch) and suggests that they hire a lawyer to win the case for the state thus proving that Ted is mere property.
As such he can be snatched, dissected and thousands of talking Teds can be produced based on the findings.
Like I said- there isn't much reality here but all in all it's not a bad set up for the sequel.
And now the bad news....
The thing that I most appreciated about the first film- the high hit ratio on the laughs- is gone from the sequel.
It was a full twenty minutes or more in until I laughed out loud.
It doesn't help that an opening musical bit that looks a lot like the opening credits to Family Guy is dull and a waste of five minutes.
But the sperm donation scene finally arrives and it is superbly gross and wonderfully funny.
It just exists all alone in a vacuum of laughs for too long.
There are more funny bits to come but not many.
Joke after joke lands with a thud.
As is his style MacFarlane and his co-writers throw in lots of pop culture references but this time they seem tired and lazy.
A Law and Order song is a poor substitute for the near classic Thunder Buddies ditty from the first film.
For me the saddest part of "Ted 2" was the realisation that MacFarlane is coasting on the belief that the same old schtick worked before so it will surely work again.
So much time is wasted on scenes that just don't work as comedy.
A library montage is supposed to be cute and amusing and is neither.
The gayness of Patrick Warburton's character is no longer funny - it was a one shot deal that they used up in the first film.
In fact all of the returning support crew from Ribisi to Jones to Warburton and Smitrovich are denied any big laugh moments.
It seems that MacFarlane knows that they should be in there but just can't figure out what for or how they should be used.
It just isn't enough to drop all of the pieces in- you have to use them right.
Even the new players don't fare well.
The Tom Brady sperm stealing sequence is a no laugh waste of ten minutes of screen time.
Morgan Freeman's role could have been played by anyone and is a total waste of his considerable presence.
I miss Mila Kunis and as much as I enjoyed Amanda Seyfried's playing of Sam she is no substitute.
Through no fault of her own I should add.
There are some amusing moments and Seyfried is a charming, welcome presence but even her character is largely wasted (in two ways).
The whole pop culture ignorance angle they build up with her character seems to be heading to a payoff but doesn't.
Like MacFarlane's "A Million Ways To Die In the West" this one is overlong and not funny enough by some margin.
I had hopes that Jessica Barth- so good in the first film- would be let loose to run wild but she is sidelined as an almost 'normal' love interest.
An early lovers spat scene between her and Ted shot oddly like a reality TV fly on the wall show doesn't allow any of her comic ability to shine through and unfortunately neither does the rest of the film.
Even the inclusion of John Slattery, Jay Leno and in a very weird scene Liam Neeson cannot do enough to hold back a feeling very early on that this one is just not going to live up to its terrific predecessor.
This is a disappointment but it is not without some good news.
It may fail to reach the lofty heights of the first film in the comedy stakes but there is still enjoyment in spending more time with these characters.
A song by Amanda Seyfried is a delight even if the comedy attached to it again falls flat.
There are a few good barbs at the likes of Steven Tyler and the Kardashians and some of the court room dialogue is very well written but an over reliance on references to other films (Planes Trains and Automobiles, Jurassic Park amongst others) reveals that this series has run out of steam already.
RATING: 68 / 100
CONCLUSION: Bland and uninspired. You have to pick through this one looking for highlights.
Running Time: 116 minutes
Rated: R16 - Frequent profanity and drug use - same as first one
The first Ted movie was a brilliantly funny shot out of the blue.
It was a crazy idea delivered with an astonishingly profane anything goes style.
Of course it was a hit and it deserved to be.
One of the things that made Ted work extra well for me was that it arrived at a time when I was starting to get used to seeing comedies and laughing a couple of times and feeling grateful for it.
Ted was hilarious from go to wo - a rarity.
It cost $50,000,000 and took in exactly eleven times that.
Obviously a sequel would be required and in this case it was a requirement that I am fully behind.
In between Ted movies Seth MacFarlane hosted the Oscars and directed "A Million Ways To Die In the West" - an overlong movie that had some good moments but was largely a failure.
In Ted 2 we find that John (Wahlberg) has split from Lori (Mila Kunis) who he married at the end of the first movie and Ted and Tami-Lyn (the great Jessica Barth) are themselves about to tie the knot.
The rapid disposal of Kunis is even more expedient than that of Megan Fox in Transformers 3 or Alice Eve from the Entourage movie.
It just didn't work out we are told.
Trouble begins when Ted tries to adopt a baby to save his marriage and the authorities realise that he shouldn't have been afforded the rights of a person because he isn't one.
There is an awful lot wrong with the idea here given that the first movie dealt with this issue (after a fashion) but when all is said and done it really doesn't matter.
The universe of Ted is not remotely about reality- nor should it be.
Ted finds his marriage annulled, adoption denied and his employment terminated.
He lawyers up to fight for his right to be recognised as a person with the rights that go along with it.
The ever scheming Donny (Ribisi) who now works for Hasbro sees the chance to get hold of the object of his obsession and approaches the head of the company (John Carroll Lynch) and suggests that they hire a lawyer to win the case for the state thus proving that Ted is mere property.
As such he can be snatched, dissected and thousands of talking Teds can be produced based on the findings.
Like I said- there isn't much reality here but all in all it's not a bad set up for the sequel.
And now the bad news....
 |
| The Thunder Buddies are back |
It was a full twenty minutes or more in until I laughed out loud.
It doesn't help that an opening musical bit that looks a lot like the opening credits to Family Guy is dull and a waste of five minutes.
But the sperm donation scene finally arrives and it is superbly gross and wonderfully funny.
It just exists all alone in a vacuum of laughs for too long.
There are more funny bits to come but not many.
Joke after joke lands with a thud.
As is his style MacFarlane and his co-writers throw in lots of pop culture references but this time they seem tired and lazy.
A Law and Order song is a poor substitute for the near classic Thunder Buddies ditty from the first film.
For me the saddest part of "Ted 2" was the realisation that MacFarlane is coasting on the belief that the same old schtick worked before so it will surely work again.So much time is wasted on scenes that just don't work as comedy.
A library montage is supposed to be cute and amusing and is neither.
The gayness of Patrick Warburton's character is no longer funny - it was a one shot deal that they used up in the first film.
In fact all of the returning support crew from Ribisi to Jones to Warburton and Smitrovich are denied any big laugh moments.
It seems that MacFarlane knows that they should be in there but just can't figure out what for or how they should be used.
It just isn't enough to drop all of the pieces in- you have to use them right.
Even the new players don't fare well.
The Tom Brady sperm stealing sequence is a no laugh waste of ten minutes of screen time.
Morgan Freeman's role could have been played by anyone and is a total waste of his considerable presence.
I miss Mila Kunis and as much as I enjoyed Amanda Seyfried's playing of Sam she is no substitute.
Through no fault of her own I should add.
There are some amusing moments and Seyfried is a charming, welcome presence but even her character is largely wasted (in two ways).
The whole pop culture ignorance angle they build up with her character seems to be heading to a payoff but doesn't.
 |
| Jessica Barth didn't get enough credit for her work in the first film |
I had hopes that Jessica Barth- so good in the first film- would be let loose to run wild but she is sidelined as an almost 'normal' love interest.
An early lovers spat scene between her and Ted shot oddly like a reality TV fly on the wall show doesn't allow any of her comic ability to shine through and unfortunately neither does the rest of the film.
Even the inclusion of John Slattery, Jay Leno and in a very weird scene Liam Neeson cannot do enough to hold back a feeling very early on that this one is just not going to live up to its terrific predecessor.
This is a disappointment but it is not without some good news.
It may fail to reach the lofty heights of the first film in the comedy stakes but there is still enjoyment in spending more time with these characters.
A song by Amanda Seyfried is a delight even if the comedy attached to it again falls flat.
There are a few good barbs at the likes of Steven Tyler and the Kardashians and some of the court room dialogue is very well written but an over reliance on references to other films (Planes Trains and Automobiles, Jurassic Park amongst others) reveals that this series has run out of steam already.
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