Ted 2 (2015) - Film Review

Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried & Morgan Freeman

Screenplay: Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild

Directed By: Seth MacFarlane

Certificate: 15

 

When I think back to films released in 2012, I find myself surprised by the number of great comedies released in that year. Alongside box office hits such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Pitch Perfect, we had Ted. Ted marked Seth MacFarlane's film directorial debut, and was a critical and commercial success. However, his following film A Million Ways To Die In The West, wasn't nearly as successful, and so now we find ourselves returning to the original drinking, drug-using, potty-mouthed teddy bear in Ted 2. Can this film match the quality of the original?

 

Following on from the events of the first film, Ted has married his girlfriend Tami-Lynn, while his best friend John Bennett has divorced Lori after she was unable to accept Ted in her life again. A year later, Ted and Tami-Lynn's marriage is beginning to break down so the two agree to adopt a child. However, when background checks are carried out at the adoption agency, Ted learns that he is not classed as a citizen, but as property. With the help of novice lawyer Samantha Jackson, Ted, John and Tami-Lynn take to the courts in order to fight for Ted's civil rights.

 

Compared to its predecessor, Ted 2 is more of a flawed film, but because I still enjoyed and laughed along with it, I'll start on a positive note. In one of the few areas of improvement over the original, I was surprised to find that Ted 2 was more focused and purposeful. While the first film went for a Bromance vs. Romance story, this one is touching on and dealing with more pressing themes. The plot of the film revolves around Ted having to go through the courts to prove he's a person, and often with a tongue in cheek style, both the film and the audience know how closely this parallels real life. This is clearly an issue Seth MacFarlane has been wanting to tackle and one he's already begun exploring in his TV series Family Guy. In 2015 alone, there have been similar court battles to legalize gay marriage in both America and elsewhere in the world, as well as numerous civil rights protests that feel depressingly relevant to the story being told in Ted 2. It may seem unlikely that a film going for often dark or very adult humour can pull off a story with such heavy ideas, but most of the time, a decent balance is struck between the two.

 

But not all is perfect and Ted 2 does admittedly lack the same novelty as the original, and ends up trying to compensate with more shocking and edgy humour. The original film had the advantage of having a concept we'd never seen before with a teddy bear that drinks, swears, does drugs etc. Whereas this film lacks that same novelty so instead goes for more shocks, and while I can understand why, it doesn't always work. The clearest example of this is John and Ted's visit to a sperm bank. As we saw in the trailers, John ends up slipping, hitting a shelf and getting covered in the specimens. Whether you find this funny or not will depend on your own preferences, but for me it just seems a bit much. Personally I find this film to be funnier when the laughs are played straight, such as Ted's reaction to finding out the specimens are rejected sickle-cell donations. It's dark and offensive … but it's so much more funny. Most of the time I did end up laughing at least every couple of minutes, just as much as I did with the original film, but again how funny you'll personally find it will depend on how keen you are on Seth MacFarlane's brand of humour. For me, some of the biggest laughs came from John and Ted going to an improv comedy group and shouting out inappropriate topics, meeting Samantha Jackson for the first time, or the two singing along to the Law & Order theme tune whilst high. One of the most important things that made the first Ted film such a success was how amazing Mark Wahlberg was as John and how he was able to portray such a convincing relationship with CGI talking stuffed bear. That same relationship is back again for Ted 2 and feels just as effortless as ever.

 

Another surprise with Ted 2 was the sheer amount of hilarious celebrity cameos. Usually in films, particularly comedies, resorting to celebrity cameos is often a sign of scraping the bottom of the barrel, but here, they're actually really funny and well-used. There are already some big names involved in the film, such as Morgan Freeman and the return of Patrick Stewart as the narrator, but appearances from even more big names are certainly impressive. While I don't want to spoil too much the surprise of who shows up, appearances from names such as Jay Leno and Tom Brady were really well used, and a brief appearance from Liam Neeson at the grocery store where Ted works was absolutely hysterical. Ted 2 could be the film that makes the best use of celebrity cameos that I've seen in a while.

 

Probably the biggest problem with this sequel is that at nearly two hours long, Ted 2 feels overly stuffed and padded out. Throughout the film, there are signs of padding. One of these is an unnecessary dance sequence during the opening titles. While its amazingly well-made and choreographed and might have worked as a closing number, it feels out of place, especially when the scene immediately after sees Ted and Tami-Lynn having a blazing row. After this we have another song and dance montage as John, Ted and Samantha work on the court case, as well as another song whilst sitting round a campfire. Even Donny from the first film makes a return and I don't understand why – not even the trailers hinted at his reappearance. Donny was one of the less successful parts of the first Ted anyway, so bringing him back just feels pointless, other than to needlessly extend the run time by about twenty minutes. His son isn't mentioned either, and his and Ted's meeting takes place at New York's Comic-Con, which just feels like an excuse for overly-done product placement. There's nothing wrong with product placement in films, but it has to be done subtly and/or link into the story... and here it does neither.

 

In my review of the first film, I mentioned that John's girlfriend Lori felt underdeveloped compared to John and Ted, despite a great performance from Mila Kunis. Well I may have spoke too soon as Lori's absence is definitely felt in the sequel. Thankfully the film does provide an explanation why she's not here, but it isn't particularly satisfying and seems unlikely. After everything we saw John and Lori go through in the first film, it goes against their characters for Lori to have now got divorced from John. Surely there must have been a better explanation? Replacing the gap left by Lori, we're introduced to rookie lawyer Samantha Jackson played by Amanda Seyfried. Amanda Seyfried makes Samantha thoroughly likeable and she works incredibly well with Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane, whilst also nailing the comedy part of her character. But even so, in an ideal world, it would still be John, Ted, Samantha and Lori working together for this court case.

 

It's true that Ted 2 can't match or hope to best the quality of the original film, but I didn't dislike it. Ted 2 still manages to make me laugh at the situations and dialogue it gives its main characters, and while I didn't laugh at every single joke there was, the same can be said of the original. The sequel feels more purposeful than the original and its one of the few comedies that understands how to include celebrity cameos, even if it suffers Lori's absence and feels about twenty-thirty minutes too long.

Ted 2



6/10