MOVIE OF THE WEEK (6/26/15): TED 2
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| "It says here that despite what this blogger thought, most people still didn't like A Million Ways to Die in the West!" Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) reads a letter while her husband, the animated teddy bear come to life (voiced by Seth McFarlane), looks on in a scene from the upcoming sequel to the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy of all time, TED 2. Credit: Tippett Studio/Universal Pictures and Media Rights Capital. © 2015 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved. |
WATCH THE TRAILER(S) HERE:
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Mark Wahlberg, Seth McFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, John Slattery, Patrick Warbuton, Michael Dorn, John Carroll Lynch, Sam J. Jones and Morgan Freeman
WRITER(S): Seth McFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild
DIRECTOR(S): Seth McFarlane
60 SECOND PLOT SUMMARY (OR AS CLOSE TO THAT TIME AS ONE CAN MAKE IT): Starting off 6 months and then a year and a half later the events of the first film, Ted 2 finds John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and his magical best friend Ted (the teddy bear voiced by co-writer/director Seth McFarlane) in very different places.
While John is now divorced and not handling it well, Ted is now married to his grocery store sweetheart Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) ... And that isn't exactly going well, either. Hoping to save his marriage, Ted gets an idea from a co-worker to have a baby. The physical interspecies issues aside, Ted and Tami-Lynn quickly realize they have a bigger issue than trying to conceive ...
... It's the fact that under Massachusetts state law, Ted is not considered a person – he's property (whose property remains to be seen).
Determined to fight for his civil rights, Ted and John hire the best lawyer they can afford – which means hiring a pot-smoking, fresh out of law school working pro bono attorney named Samantha Jackson (Amanda Seyfried), or Sam L. Jackson for short. They have no easy task ahead of them, mind you. Why, you ask? Because Hasbro Toy President Tom Jessup (John Carroll Lynch) has someone working for him that has some rather nefarious plans for our friend Ted ...
Because his old nemesis Donny (Giovani Ribisi) wants his revenge.
While John is now divorced and not handling it well, Ted is now married to his grocery store sweetheart Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) ... And that isn't exactly going well, either. Hoping to save his marriage, Ted gets an idea from a co-worker to have a baby. The physical interspecies issues aside, Ted and Tami-Lynn quickly realize they have a bigger issue than trying to conceive ...
... It's the fact that under Massachusetts state law, Ted is not considered a person – he's property (whose property remains to be seen).
Determined to fight for his civil rights, Ted and John hire the best lawyer they can afford – which means hiring a pot-smoking, fresh out of law school working pro bono attorney named Samantha Jackson (Amanda Seyfried), or Sam L. Jackson for short. They have no easy task ahead of them, mind you. Why, you ask? Because Hasbro Toy President Tom Jessup (John Carroll Lynch) has someone working for him that has some rather nefarious plans for our friend Ted ...
Because his old nemesis Donny (Giovani Ribisi) wants his revenge.
WHO WILL LIKE THIS FILM THE MOST? Family Guy fans; Ted fans; Seth McFarlane fans; Mark Wahlberg fans; people who like irreverent/inappropriate humor; people who can take a joke provided it is funny in the end.
WHO WON’T (OR SHOULDN'T) LIKE THIS MOVIE? Pretty much anyone who hates Family Guy, didn't like the first film or finds anything Seth McFarlane does reprehensible.
SO, IS IT GOOD, BAD OR ABSOLUTELY AWFUL? Ted, as Universal Pictures will have you know, is the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Now, with a sequel that packs in even more hysterics (and dare I say a little socially relevant commentary), Ted 2 looks poised to outdo the original – and deservedly so.
Look, I am not here to change your mind. If you did not like the first Ted movie, why in the world would you invest in a film filed with drug use, profanity, (prosthetic) nudity and bodily fluids galore, not to mention plenty of opinion on political correctness especially in regards to racial/social slurs? If you did enjoy the first film, however, all of the above only serves to make Ted 2 a raucous 2 hour excursion one could best describe as a comedic drug trip given how often your mandible will be moving from laughter.
McFarlane and Wahlberg have their comedic chemistry down pat to the point that nothing seems ridiculous about their relationship. Instead, these are simply two good friends who have each other's backs through thick and thin and genuinely need each other. Of course, the film wouldn't work as well without Seyfried playing her role as the outsider being brought into her world with genuine innocence (or as much as her character can have) and Barth shining as Ted's devoted, down-for-whatever, never-wavering wife. The quartet really do an excellent job of not only playing it straight and going for it in funny situations, but also slipping in subtle punchlines while you're still reeling from the previous one. Ribisi also deserves credit for his second turn as the ultra messed-up Donny, but what else would you expect him to do?
That's not to suggest that all of the other major talents – not to mention those making some of the weirdest (and hilarious) ones you'll likely see this year – in the case don't play their roles well. It's just that they are all along for the ride waiting for their turn to play off the aforementioned foursome.
While the film definitely adult material, the film does happen to slide in some insight about what constitutes love and justice, what Ted 2 really is a tale about two best friends ... Two really, really, REALLY bawdy, foul-mouthed best friends.
Given how funny their journeys are together, however, audiences likely won't want them to clean up their act anytime soon.
Look, I am not here to change your mind. If you did not like the first Ted movie, why in the world would you invest in a film filed with drug use, profanity, (prosthetic) nudity and bodily fluids galore, not to mention plenty of opinion on political correctness especially in regards to racial/social slurs? If you did enjoy the first film, however, all of the above only serves to make Ted 2 a raucous 2 hour excursion one could best describe as a comedic drug trip given how often your mandible will be moving from laughter.
McFarlane and Wahlberg have their comedic chemistry down pat to the point that nothing seems ridiculous about their relationship. Instead, these are simply two good friends who have each other's backs through thick and thin and genuinely need each other. Of course, the film wouldn't work as well without Seyfried playing her role as the outsider being brought into her world with genuine innocence (or as much as her character can have) and Barth shining as Ted's devoted, down-for-whatever, never-wavering wife. The quartet really do an excellent job of not only playing it straight and going for it in funny situations, but also slipping in subtle punchlines while you're still reeling from the previous one. Ribisi also deserves credit for his second turn as the ultra messed-up Donny, but what else would you expect him to do?
That's not to suggest that all of the other major talents – not to mention those making some of the weirdest (and hilarious) ones you'll likely see this year – in the case don't play their roles well. It's just that they are all along for the ride waiting for their turn to play off the aforementioned foursome.
While the film definitely adult material, the film does happen to slide in some insight about what constitutes love and justice, what Ted 2 really is a tale about two best friends ... Two really, really, REALLY bawdy, foul-mouthed best friends.
Given how funny their journeys are together, however, audiences likely won't want them to clean up their act anytime soon.
OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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