Review of Ted 2 (2015) by Patrick L — 19 Aug 2015

"Even though Seth MacFarlane's potty mouth teddy bear does generate laughs from time-to-time, "Ted 2" is still more of the same".

Movie Review: Ted 2.

Date Viewed: June 27 2015.

Directed By Seth MacFarlane (A Million Ways to Die in the West and Ted).

Written By Seth MacFarlane, Wellesley Wild and Alec Sulkin.

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Giovanni Ribisi, Morgan Freeman, Patrick Warburton,.

Michael Dorn, John Slattery, Bill Smitrovich, John Carroll Lynch, Sam J. Jones, Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Moynihan, Ron Canada, Dennis Haysbert, Tom Brady and Liam Neeson.

I wasn't a fan of the first "Ted" movie. It had big laughs and it was original but it still had the same buddy movie formula with two immature people (Mark Wahlberg and a talking teddy bear named Ted) who smoke pot, say a lot of swear words and do stupid things. "Ted 2" does generate laughs from time-to-time but it's still more of the same. As usual, MacFarlane puts in a lot of sex, pee and poop jokes and he gathers a bunch of big name stars for cameo roles. MacFarlane maybe a cynical comic performer but at least he's Marlon Brando compared to Marlon Wayans and his shitty spoof movies. We also get a number of pop-culture punchlines, referencing everything from Justin Bieber, The Kardashians, Ferguson, Bill Cosby and Deflategate. "Ted 2" feels like other comedy sequels, it's a simple cash-grab and almost everybody is phoning it in.

Ted (once again voiced by MacFarlane) is now married to his slutty hooker, I mean fellow grocery store cashier, Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) while his thunder buddy, John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is lonely because his wife, Lori (Mila Kunis) left him six months ago. A year later, Ted and Tami-Lynn are fighting constantly and they are on the brink of divorce. To save his marriage, Ted wants to have baby but that isn't an option because Tami-Lynn's womb is badly damaged from years of drug addiction. They try to adopt but even that isn't an option because Ted is just property, in other words, he's just a toy. To prove that he is a citizen of the United States, Ted takes his case to court and he hires a lawyer named Samantha L. Jackson (Amanda Seyfried). Her name is Samantha L. Jackson get it! This leads Ted to say, "Oh my God! You're Sam L. Jackson!". When Sam doesn't figure out who the other Sam L. Jackson is, Ted says, "Have you seen every movie ever? He's the black guy".

In turns out that Samantha is a stoner as well and she serves as the new love interest for John. When the court rules against Ted, they turn to civil rights attorney, Patrick Meighan (Morgan Freeman) for help. Giovanni Ribisi returns as Donny who now works as a janitor at Hasbro and what do you know, they're promoting the new line of Transformers toys because Wahlberg is the new face of the hit movie franchise. Donny wants to kidnap Ted again and study him in hopes of making more living teddy bears.

Director and co-writer MacFarlane (Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West) does have a habit with raunchy humor, most of it is nasty while some of it is actually pretty funny.

In addition to Morgan Freeman, the collection of celebrity cameos also includes Jay Leno, Liam Neeson, Dennis Haysbert, Tom Brady, Michael Dorn, Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon,.

Bobby Moynihan, John Slattery and yes, Sam J. Jones returns as the minister to Ted's wedding because he loves Flash Gordon.

15-year-old boys will probably enjoy MacFarlane's sense of humor but to me it's just another lazy sequel.