It's probably especially appropriate when I'm talking about a teddy bear movie that I admit I have a soft spot for the offensive, envelope pushing humor of Seth MacFarlane. The man's twisted sense of humor, appreciation of film music and encyclopedic knowledge of obscure film references are very in sync with my own.
So it's in that light that I say TED 2 struck me as pretty damn funny, while clearly not as good as the original.
It's been a couple years since the original film and John (Mark Wahlberg) has divorced from his bride. He misses her (and the film misses Mila Kunis!) and he is having trouble getting back in sync with life.
His thunder buddy and stuffed animal friend Ted has proposed to his fellow cashier and girlfriend Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth). After several months, their relationship hits some rocky ground and they decide to have a baby to set things right.
After some hilarious escapades at a fertility clinic (guaranteed gross out laughs) and an attempt to steal some of Tom Brady's seed (one of the funniest sequences of the film, with Brady being a good sport on film), they decide to adopt.
Soon they are battling a court order than decides Ted is not a person but property and can't marry or adopt.
Enter rookie lawyer Samantha L Jackson (amusingly played by Amanda Seyfried) and a funny court battle begins.
The film dances a line between trying to say something serious about marriage equality while stooping to the lowest levels for a laugh.
The opening credit sequence with a Busby Berkley type dance is hilarious and impressive, Wahlberg and MacFarlane's banter is consistently fast, profane and funny.
Morgan Freeman joins the sequel and cast members Patrick Warburton, Sam Jones and Michael Dorn return to deliver plenty of laughs.
Liam Neeson is damn funny in his several scenes in the film, but the last half gets bogged down in the same dumb teddy bear kidnapping plot with Giovanni Ribisi that the first film did!
There are only so many fart jokes, pot smoking references and Flash Gordon jokes you can retread before a sequel begins to feel tired and Ted 2 dances back and forth over the line.
Still, I laughed quite a bit and by the time Ted and John were barraging Samantha with references to her looking like Gollum, I was still laughing out loud.
MacFarlane's childish and foul humor make me laugh quite a bit, what can I say? The unrated version pushes every envelope of profanity and gross out humor, so obviously its recommended, haha.
Let's hope MacFarlane and Wahlberg quit with Ted 2. You can feel the gas running low on the series before it wraps up.
What the hell, these Thunder Buddies still make me laugh. I'll give em a B- while never looking at Tom Brady or Jay Leno the same way again.
(Kudos to Leno for being able to take a dirty joke, I'm pleasantly surprised.)
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