2.5/5 Ted 2 There’s something a little poetic about a film loosely based on one’s battle for civil rights being released on the same day as the landmark SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality. The poetry ends there. Ted 2, which finds the titular crude teddy seeking court validation as a person so that he and his wife Tami-Lynn can adopt a child, is everything you would expect a Seth MacFarlane production to be: endlessly crude, juvenilely offensive, and often-times funny, with a small (large, really) dose of self gratification. MacFarlane’s flagship project, Family Guy, is so successful and bearably funny because it serves us the whims of its creator in tiny, half-hour doses. Stretch those whims out to nearly two hours, and you might as well be sitting in a room with a bunch of junior high boys keeping themselves busy by farting, telling (lots of) penis jokes, showing off their colorfully limited vocabulary, and blowing spitballs into your mouth - yes, that is something that happens here. Ted 2 is a stout 115 minutes long; boy, can you feel it. As was the case with the director’s last film, the equally limp A Million Ways to Die in the West, a large portion of the jokes fall quietly on their back. I will never campaign for censorship in any art form, but there comes a time after the millionth F-bomb and semen gag when you begin to see the weak jokes barely held up by the profanity. (Aside: Ok, there is one Kardashian joke in the sperm donor scene that cracked me up. End of Aside.) The jokes themselves should be biting and boundary-pushing, not the amount of dirty words you surround them with. | Director: Seth MacFarlane Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Morgan Freeman, John Slatterly Writers: Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, Wellesley Wild |
But all that is not to say that Ted 2 lacks comical moments. Quite the contrary, actually. Each scene has at least one great moment. My favorite joke finds Amanda Seyfried’s pothead lawyer asking Ted and his “thunda” buddy John (Mark Wahlberg) who wrote Great Expectations. Their two guesses: Judy Bloom and Hitler. Ha! Sadly, this was one of the jokes featured in the trailer. Doesn’t make it any less hilarious. Ted 2 also scrapes by with the continued sweetness and affection between Ted and John. Wahlberg and MacFarlane have settled into a charming chemistry that gives the film whatever heart it has.
Alas, there is still one more gripe that I have with Ted 2. I always find myself wishing that MacFarlane would grow up a little and start actually SAYING something with his shock humor. Finally, he tries to do it, with the film’s central court case, and it comes across as generic, weak, and forgettable. Hopefully, we will one day see this film as a training exercise for the day when the director actually does make a statement. Until then, this is what we have. Ladies and gentlemen, Ted 2.
Alas, there is still one more gripe that I have with Ted 2. I always find myself wishing that MacFarlane would grow up a little and start actually SAYING something with his shock humor. Finally, he tries to do it, with the film’s central court case, and it comes across as generic, weak, and forgettable. Hopefully, we will one day see this film as a training exercise for the day when the director actually does make a statement. Until then, this is what we have. Ladies and gentlemen, Ted 2.