Ted 2

I really can't understand why many critics went harsh on this one.

The film is jutted with quality humour - social, political and personal. It lives up to the expectations and doesn't slack anywhere at all. It makes us laugh but also makes us uneasy at times not because of crassness but because it reveals the underbelly of our social setup.

I am waiting for Ted 3 - I sincerely hope McFarlene considers it. Ted should run up for Governor or President. It will fit in nicely with the US presidentials in 2016 and should reveal the shallowness of modern political campaigning.

Go Seth go...

In 2012 when Seth Macfarlane's directorial debut was released, I, like many other people enjoyed it a lot. It was a basic film about a man and his senile teddy bear who would just smoke weed, swear a lot and hang out. That premise was enough to get us on board and it worked for a one off feature film. After the box office success it received a sequel was inevitable.. but how could a film with such a premise possibly do anything more to become a franchise? Well not only does Ted 2 ramp up the laughs, it also gives us a surprisingly strong plot and pulls it off well.

The basic premise is that Ted has married Tammi-Lynn from the first film, whereas John has divorced Lori. Following some marital problems, Ted decides to save his marriage with a baby, but in order to do this he has to prove that he is a person and not just property in the eyes of the law. Enter Sam L. Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) and yes as you would expect there are many references to the Hollywood star. I knew Mila Kunis was not coming back for this film and after her performance in the lacklustre 'A million ways to die in the West' i was not expecting Seyfried to be a good replacement, but she fits in with the cast very well. Just like the first film the chemistry between John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted (Seth Macfarlane) is what makes the comedy work so well, you really believe you are watching two real life friends hang out, rather than Mark Wahlberg and a CGI teddy bear. The plot wasn't what made the first so enjoyable, it was their bond. Amanda Seyfried fits in with these two so well and as a trio they really mesh well together. She brings a lot of laughs to the table and I actually liked her character more than Mila Kunis'.

Whilst the plot is very good and holds up, the third act takes a bit of a plunge and almost copies the last act of the first film completely. Giovanni Risbi reprises his role as Donny and does exactly what he did originally, just for a slightly different reason. The film could have done without this to focus more on the human elements, even though it was hilarious to see Ninja turtle Raphael dance to 'I think we're alone now'. It almost felt like filler to make a longer movie. The small road trip segment to me was great, we got spoofs of both Planes, Trains and Automobiles and a great Jurassic Park spoof in the space of a couple of minutes. In fact the pop culture references from Rocky to Flash Gordon (Sam J Jones returns) were pretty great. I also loved the courtroom scenes, and even Morgan Freeman in an extended cameo provided us with a very good look at what human rights are all about.

What i wanted from this film was to laugh, which i did, a lot more than i expected to as well which is a bonus. Look out for a hysterical cameo from Liam Neeson. The 'is Ted a human' storyline felt like a bold and wonderful step forward and brings up way more questions about human rights than any Seth Macfarlane production should.. but not in a bad way at all. It focuses a lot less on the drugs and crude jokes, even though they are very much still there! But the way it was executed was just great. I wish the third act had stuck with it, but by the end if you are a fan of Seth Macfarlane's work such as Family Guy you will come out satisfied after plenty of laughs and a surprising amount of heart. Will we get a Ted 3? Most likely, but if it keeps up what Ted 2 did right then i just might be okay with that.

If you're a fan of the first Ted movie you'll probably enjoy the second as well but I think everybody can pretty much agree the first one was a lot funnier. The performances are still decent with some laughs, the biggest problem is is the ho-hum story that isn't engaging. The freshness from the first movie is gone as well. All in all Ted 2 is a slightly fun little comedy if you enjoyed the first one just don't expect it to be as good.

His certainly not a cuddly teddy that's for all but after one seriously successful first outing in 2012 it was always a given that everyone's (the only one?) favourite foul mouthed yet somehow endearing talking bear was going to make it back to a big screen close by and with that we now have Ted 2.

After his biggest misfire yet in the potentially hilarious yet wrongly skewed A Million Ways to Die in the West (of which an alumni of makes a great cameo in this film), Seth MacFarlane finds himself back on familiar ground, which is in both a material sense, a comedic sense and also a still unfortunately self-indulgent directional sense that see's MacFarlane struggle to rid his 2 hour plus film of jokes that don't work and plot lines that feel like nothing more than time fillers. If there was ever a director in need of someone to cull his films of material that neither enhance or contribute to the tale at hand it's MacFarlane but to say the man doesn't deliver some comedic gold in this enjoyable romp would be a lie.

While you'll often find yourself ashamed at what brings forth fits of laughter here, MacFarlane as he is well known to do, mixes juvenile humour with far more wide reaching topical funnies, from everything from civil rights through to his usual pop culture insights, nothing is out of his reach. Within the films bloated runtime there are moments of pure gold that make Ted 2 succeed to the level it does, much like its predecessor and with the continued chemistry shared between Whalberg's well-meaning yet daft John and the MacFarlane voiced Ted Clubber-Lang (yes Ted now has a last name) at the same high levels the films many sins can be forgiven thanks to their often game saving banters. The addition of Amanda Seyfried is also a bonus to the film, her willingness to poke fun at herself a particular highlight.

The narrative of Ted 2 is anything but fantastic and the reappearance of Giovani Ribisi's teddy obsessed villain Donny is almost a movie breaker but Ted 2 has enough wit and chemistry to save itself from all the low denominator humour and awkwardly edited grove that surrounds it and in the end provides some very decent comedic entertainment. In saying this it may be time for all involved to move onto other things with MacFarlane in particular in need of something a little meatier than he has been dishing up over the last few years.

3 Tom Brady home invasions out of 5

Ted 2 now focuses on the titular anthropomorphic teddy bear in, having his own life of marriage and plans ahead of getting a non-biological child. This leads to a strangely interesting conflict about gaining civil rights to a teddy bear. And it's stranger that at some point the movie does take it somewhat seriously, and eventually goes back to its crass hijinks. It's nice, but nothing much compelling in the end, because what obviously overshadows it is definitely the outrageous laughs. But even the degree of laughs suffers the same problem; it's full of energy at first then it awkwardly mutes its lighter tone for its climax. Fans of the first may get the same pleasure that they seek, but there is really nothing special to it, either.

The first half really has the strongest amount of funny moments and also brought some intrigue to the story's center. But the movie apparently cannot decide what exact approach it is generally taking. The outrageous comedy is still everywhere, but whenever it stops by focusing on its themes, it really takes it seriously, like it actually believes that it is saying something important. But the movie hardly earns anything to deserve that attention. It's just shifting from its outrageous nature to a sudden gravity back and forth. Even for a comedy that is actually just fooling around, it stills displays a mind of uncertainty. There is also some bits of attempting to replicate Broadway; with dance numbers and a song. Can't tell if that's one of the movie's way of tripping or the director just wants to show off that he can do a musical. Either way, it rather feels nothing more than a random filler. The movie is also a little too long, the movie hitting the same major problem of the first film by setting up a climax that it's supposed to drive tension. It never felt right for the film, even worse, it's more like a rehash, reintroducing the same villain except it takes place in a different location. It's rather awkward and tedious than effective.

The sentiment doesn't felt convincing enough for the movie's true colors, but then it's all about the humor. And if the humor works, then there is a worthy roar of laughter to get from this film. Predictably raunchy, pot fueled and consists pop culture references; that will certainly be enjoyed if you understand the language of a Seth MacFarlane comedy. It's fun if it really tries to be fun. The performances from its lead actors are still a joy to watch. MacFarlane still manages to put energy to the talking teddy bear and Mark Wahlberg is still committed to fool around as Ted's man child best friend.

Ted 2 doesn't bring the same surprise of the first one, but if you're in for more outrageous laughs from this profane talking teddy bear, then it won't be a problem, as long as you're not expecting too much. The film does try to bring on an important theme, but it's not as effective or as strong as it wanted to be; it does make some interesting arguments, just doesn't have any powerful or at least earned conclusion to it; but hell, who would exactly take that seriously, anyway? Well, no more than the movie itself. It should have been shorter, the storyline should have been tighter, and the third act should have tried harder than repeating its predecessor. Again, it can be really funny, it just suffers handling its ideas better.