Ted 2

Comedy sequels have a tendency to rarely work out. They are often cookie-cutter replicas of their predecessors, recycled jokes and all, with little more to offer audiences and a complete lack of any possible world building. Some films embrace these stereotypes to great success (i.e. 22 Jump Street), but many films struggle to recapture the magic. 

Unfortunately, but not all that unsurprising, Ted 2 also falls into this same slump. 

Ted 2 picks up some time after the first, and along the way (to the loss of the movie) we've lost Mila Kunis' character. Ted, voiced by MacFarlane once more, is marrying his girlfriend from the first film while John is struggling to get back in the game. To the film's credit, the plot is incredibly well timed (especially given the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage) and different from the first. It boils down to: Ted is fighting to be seen as a person, rather than property, in the eyes of the law. In the hands of a more clever, and mature, director (sorry Seth, you ain't that guy) this could have been a uniquely deep comedy. It has it's moments, although the references to slavery were a bit far stretching knowing that Ted is a stuffed animal, but overall Ted 2 doesn't fully live up to its premise's potential, though I give it points for having a different plot than the first.

"You're not Mila Kunis!"

This scene was equal parts hilarious and disgusting

One of my biggest complaints about the first Ted was that it was overlong. This CON really hindered my overall score, and I eventually admitted I may have been too harsh on the film. It had a lot of solid humor (one of the funniest films of that year) and a surprising amount of heart. Ted 2 I'm a little less forgiving with in this regard. It clocks in at 115 minutes, but feels much longer. The style of MacFarlane's comedy involves a certain degree of "randomness". While many of these scenes are quite funny in Ted 2, there are also several short subplots and segments that add nothing to the story and, with some tighter editing, I'd be willing to be that this could have been a 90 minute film. I don't mind ~2 hour films, but it's rather obvious when they are filled with purpose or filled with "fluff". Much like the teddy bear the film is based on, Ted 2 is filled with a lot of the latter. 

Additionally, much of the heart of the original film is gone. Ted was an endearing character in the first one, probably because we saw his origins, but we get far less of that sense in this film. Rather than feeling any genuinely emotional moments, the film seemed to shoehorn them in simply to check a box that the first film created. It's not completely void, but whereas it was a PRO of that first film, it might as well be a CON in this one. 

Spin off with potential: The Bear of Wall Street

All those issues out of the way though, I still found Ted 2 to be pretty damn funny. The jokes that crash, crash hard, but the ones that land are some of the best laughs I've had this year. A few scenes stand out in my mind where I was constantly giggling (a certain Trix-related cameo comes to mind) and others had me belly laughing full out (dark comedy club improv suggestions had me rolling). This all causes me to circle back to my point about the film being too long. Ted 2 could have certainly been a minute-to-minute hilarious comedy, not unlike the first film. The jokes are there, it's just a shame that a lot of other bad jokes came along for the ride. 

Ted 2 is a disappointment. My girlfriend and I both enjoyed our time with it and neither of us found it to be a waste of time, but we also both stated that we wouldn't need to see it again. It fails to recapture the magic, heart, and laughs of the original -- or at least fails to capture them to the same degree. I enjoyed it as a sequel, but I also can't deny that it's script and editing could have used a lot of retooling. I laughed, more than several times too, but I also checked my watch on several occasions and yawned more than a half dozen times. 

"Mark, you look much smaller than your Pain and Gain days..."

This, coupled with some of MacFarlane's other recent endeavors, seem to indicate that he might have been a two trick pony with the original Ted and Family Guy. 

As a fan of his better humor, I hope I'm wrong.

CONS:

• The film is too long, even at only 115 minutes. There are tons of random scenes that could have been highly edited or cut completely -- many of them are not funny
• Lacks the heart of the original
• One of the plot lines is almost an exact copy of the original
• Some jokes crash really hard
• I missed Kunis' character from the last film and didn't find that Seyfried brought all that much to the group
• Morgan Freeman...WTF are you doing in this movie?

PROS:

• Wahlberg and MacFarlane's Ted have phenomenal chemistry. They are still a really fun pair to watch
• The films gets bonus points for seeking a uniquely different plot than the first and also for its timeliness (almost eerie given current events)
• I'd say the majority of the jokes land and there are some hilarious highlights. The film as a whole isn't the funniest one of the year, but it certainly has some of the year's funniest scenes

Rath's Review Score: 6.5/10