I did not like the first Ted movie at all; I completely loathed it and found it an insult to everything imaginable, with not even having a core message attached. So I was extremely surprised to find myself crying of laughter at Ted 2 and I can only come to one conclusion from that; and that is that Seth MacFarlane's comedy is directed at a specific age group, and I just happened to grow into that demographic.
Ted 2 starts with the stuffed-animal-come-to-life: Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) marrying Tamie Lynn (Jessica Barth) whom he met at work in the supermarket. We also have John (Mark Wahlberg), Ted's best friend ("thunder buddies") who mopes around for a year because of his divorce from his wife (played by Mila Kunis in the first film). After the honeymoon stage of Ted and Tamie Lynn's marriage, things start to fall apart really fast. So in order to save their marriage they decide to have a baby, and after an attempt at insemination and adoption Ted is stripped of his human rights and is labeled "property" by the state of Massachusetts. This leads Ted and John to sue the government for Ted's civil rights with the help of junkie lawyer Samantha (Amanda Seyfried). There are also minor, almost cameo appearances from John Slattery and Morgan Freeman in supposed supporting roles.
Seth MacFarlane's comedy basically consists of being as offensive as possible to everyone. He sort of mocks when other comedies try to maintain a balance of political correctness and making fun of people; so given that if you're going to see one of his films you have no right to complain that he was offensive because that's MacFarlane's cinematic signature. If we don't take the offensiveness and references to Hitler and 9/11 personally you actually find the film to be very funny. Although as I said before, the comedy is specifically directed at the young 18-35 age demographic; the pop culture and even political references were aimed for that restricted age group alone to understand. And so because of that, if you fall outside the intended demographic you will be forced to look at the story for entertainment, and the story is extremely lazy. Basically Seth MacFarlane (who directed and wrote the film) thought of a bunch of funny situations and figured out how to string them together, which is why the film is a court movie/ road movie/ conspiracy film all at once. So of course if you're forced to look at the film's story you will hate the film. But since when does one go to a comedy to admire the way the story was structured? One goes to a comedy to laugh at funny situations, and hey if the story is amazingly structured then all the better. But it's unjust to judge MacFarlane's comedy differently than other general more conservative comedies; in fact I almost admire MacFarlane's comedy style, it's extremely risky and basically is begging people to criticize him for it and that is hard to do in the film world for anyone.
In terms of the acting I was very surprised by Amanda Seyfried, who had been off the map of mainstream movies since Les Miserables. I have to say that her role in this film is unlike anything I had seen before; I was used to more conservative comedies like: Mama Mia! or even Mean Girls from her, so when I saw her in this dirtier and certainly more vulgar role I was both surprised and impressed. Seyfried exposes herself to basically be made fun, and she really holds out and almost accommodates her style of acting to the film and their respective actors, so that she was one of the best parts of the film. Wahlberg acted exactly the same as he did in Ted, and that means: he was funny. In fact, I would argue Wahlberg is more of a comedic actor than he is a dramatic actor. Certainly the only dramatic film he went above notable was in The Fighter. But he mostly shines in comedies as opposed to dramas, hell even in The Departed he earned an Oscar nomination for being the constantly angry and sarcastic police officer that was constantly ripping laughs from all of us. As for MacFarlane he was clearly having a blast voicing Ted. I only have the small tic of wanting to have seen more John Slattery and Morgan Freeman, but then again the trio of main actors worked so well on their own, it might have been better to not touch anything.
So in the end it's kind of hard to evaluate this film. I guess that if you're younger than 18 or older than 35 you certainly will not enjoy this film, but if you are in that age group, you will have a really good time.
Ted 2 starts with the stuffed-animal-come-to-life: Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) marrying Tamie Lynn (Jessica Barth) whom he met at work in the supermarket. We also have John (Mark Wahlberg), Ted's best friend ("thunder buddies") who mopes around for a year because of his divorce from his wife (played by Mila Kunis in the first film). After the honeymoon stage of Ted and Tamie Lynn's marriage, things start to fall apart really fast. So in order to save their marriage they decide to have a baby, and after an attempt at insemination and adoption Ted is stripped of his human rights and is labeled "property" by the state of Massachusetts. This leads Ted and John to sue the government for Ted's civil rights with the help of junkie lawyer Samantha (Amanda Seyfried). There are also minor, almost cameo appearances from John Slattery and Morgan Freeman in supposed supporting roles.
Seth MacFarlane's comedy basically consists of being as offensive as possible to everyone. He sort of mocks when other comedies try to maintain a balance of political correctness and making fun of people; so given that if you're going to see one of his films you have no right to complain that he was offensive because that's MacFarlane's cinematic signature. If we don't take the offensiveness and references to Hitler and 9/11 personally you actually find the film to be very funny. Although as I said before, the comedy is specifically directed at the young 18-35 age demographic; the pop culture and even political references were aimed for that restricted age group alone to understand. And so because of that, if you fall outside the intended demographic you will be forced to look at the story for entertainment, and the story is extremely lazy. Basically Seth MacFarlane (who directed and wrote the film) thought of a bunch of funny situations and figured out how to string them together, which is why the film is a court movie/ road movie/ conspiracy film all at once. So of course if you're forced to look at the film's story you will hate the film. But since when does one go to a comedy to admire the way the story was structured? One goes to a comedy to laugh at funny situations, and hey if the story is amazingly structured then all the better. But it's unjust to judge MacFarlane's comedy differently than other general more conservative comedies; in fact I almost admire MacFarlane's comedy style, it's extremely risky and basically is begging people to criticize him for it and that is hard to do in the film world for anyone.
In terms of the acting I was very surprised by Amanda Seyfried, who had been off the map of mainstream movies since Les Miserables. I have to say that her role in this film is unlike anything I had seen before; I was used to more conservative comedies like: Mama Mia! or even Mean Girls from her, so when I saw her in this dirtier and certainly more vulgar role I was both surprised and impressed. Seyfried exposes herself to basically be made fun, and she really holds out and almost accommodates her style of acting to the film and their respective actors, so that she was one of the best parts of the film. Wahlberg acted exactly the same as he did in Ted, and that means: he was funny. In fact, I would argue Wahlberg is more of a comedic actor than he is a dramatic actor. Certainly the only dramatic film he went above notable was in The Fighter. But he mostly shines in comedies as opposed to dramas, hell even in The Departed he earned an Oscar nomination for being the constantly angry and sarcastic police officer that was constantly ripping laughs from all of us. As for MacFarlane he was clearly having a blast voicing Ted. I only have the small tic of wanting to have seen more John Slattery and Morgan Freeman, but then again the trio of main actors worked so well on their own, it might have been better to not touch anything.
So in the end it's kind of hard to evaluate this film. I guess that if you're younger than 18 or older than 35 you certainly will not enjoy this film, but if you are in that age group, you will have a really good time.