Movie review: Ted 2

Hello!

Last night, I and a few of my friends went to see Ted 2. Personally, I don’t really consider myself to be a type of person who likes comedies, especially contemporary ones. I think that nowadays comedic movies rely too much on sexual jokes, which lack tastefulness. Nonetheless, I still went to this film, although I knew that it has a lot of sexual jokes. Two main reasons that have driven me to the cinema that night was the fact that I was going with friends – I’ll never say no to them – and secondly, I wanted to see if this was the end of Seth MacFarlane’s career.

IMDb summary: Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law.

To begin with, let’s talk about the first film. I didn’t particularly liked the 2012 Ted. I thought that the premise was interesting but the execution and the overall final product – not so much. I probably liked the 2nd Ted film more than the first.

Seth MacFarlane

This was definitely better tan MacFarlane’s last year’s comedy A Million Ways to Die in a West. While I wanted to cry while watching that one, I laughed quite a lot during this one. Also, I believe that Seth Macfarlane does amazing job a a voice actor. He really brought Ted to life once more. In addition, this film focused a lot on Ted and his own life rather than on his relationship with John as in the first film. However, I still prefer Family Guy over any MacFarlane’s film. 

Story

The movie’s plot was a bit jumbled up. You had a story of Ted getting married, then fighting for his rights, then he needed to go to NY for no real reason and there was also that story-line with Donny and Hasbro. The opening credits sequence was also impressively but way too long. Lastly, the film had a lot of advertising…way TOO much of advertising. 

Adds

Half the time, I felt like I was watching a Hasbro commercial. But they really didn’t paint themselves as a nice company. Plus, that whole NY Comic Con action was a nice advert for San Diego Convention which is coming up. Comic Con footage also allowed them a chance to include a lot of Easter Eggs of different properties.

Easter Eggs

The movie referenced other movies a lot. You could spot call-backs to Jurassic Park, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, Star Trek, Rocky, Lord of the Rings, and DC comics to name a few. There were also a plethora of references to controversial events. I believe that some of these jokes worked but some felt really flat. Furthermore, not a lot of people could understand all the references because they might have not seen that particular movie or heard anything about that particular event. References were also mainly US based, so there could be some problems with foreign audiences. My friends aren’t really that interested in pop culture or are as gigantic nerds as I am, so they didn’t understand half the jokes.

Jokes

Other half of jokes were aimed at 10 years olds. Poop jokes!? Really? There were also way too much of sexual and racist banter that, while it was funny sometimes, it made me feel bad that I laughed at such stupidity. The finale of the film also played out the same way as it did in the first film. Nothing new there.

Acting

The cast did a nice job. Mark Wahlberg was good, but his character had a smaller role this time. Amanda Seyfried was a nice addition, she replaced Mila Kunis. Since I am a fan of Amanda, I’ve enjoyed her performance and her chemistry with Wahlberg. Jessica Barth was a functional stereotypical blonde and Giovanni Ribisi – cartoon-ish crazy person. 

The film had a lot cameos as well. Morgan Freeman had a small part (the joke about his voice was funny and surprisingly truthful). Liam Neeson showed up – I guess you have to pay your bills somehow. Tom Brady was also there for some reason.

All in all, the movie was a bit of a hot mess but it came through a few times. It’s a great comedy for pop culture fans and a great one for fans of stupid jokes. These two sides really didn’t fit together, so that’s why the movie turned out as it did – with no clear direction.

Rate 3.5/5

Trailer: Ted 2 trailer