Ted 2

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.

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

This film tells the story of a talking teddy bear who sues the government, so that he gets recognised as a human being and get human rights such as marriage and drivers license.

"Ted 2" is a hugely politically incorrect film, with a lot of swearing, sexual and crude humour. It is not usually a type of film I like, but "Ted 2" does have a way to get to my heart. It is sweet and emphasises a lot of love and friendship. Towards the end, the film gets very touching, and it made my eyes well up.

Having a touching plot, together with a funny script makes "Ted 2" very entertaining, way more entertaining than I expected.

Ted 2 does exactly what it set out to do. It delivers a bunch of laughs built primarily on crude, in-your-face humor and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Seth MacFarlane proves once again that he has his finger firmly on the pulse of his target demographic because the theater was in stitches throughout most of the film. That being said, a comedy doesn't have to sacrifice cinema in order to deliver laughs. I think the first movie was a prime example of that, as it was a genuinely good movie in addition to being hilarious. Instead, MacFarlane turns this movie into a live-action version of Family Guy. The plot is choppy and it essentially feels like a series of random skits, pieced together to form the semblance of some over-arcing plot. It was easily worth watching because it was hilarious but I expected a quality film closer to that of the first one.

If there was a 6.5, I would give it. Because there was a lot to like in this movie. I like Mark Wahlberg. I like the bear. I like Amanda Seyfried. And there were a lot of good laughs in this movie. Good one-liners, and good recurring gags.

However, it just wasn't enough to make up for a horrible plot. The plot is lifted from "Miracle on 43rd Street." But it is not Christmas, Ted is not Santa. Somehow Ted does not rise to the mythical level of Santa, this is not a movie for kids. and the movie falls flat. Markie Mark is same as ever, and I do enjoy him. Kudos to Amanda Seyfried, who tries so hard to make the romance story line work. But I could never get past the fact that I was watching MW and AS and a wise-cracking stuffed bear. Some good laughs? Yes. A good story? Not even close.