C.J. Foxx Movie house Reviews #11 Ted 2

I missed the first Ted movie in the theaters but cherished it a great deal in DVD form.  Then when I saw Wolf of Wall Street, I had the opportunity to see a preview screening of Seth MacFarlane's "A Million Ways to Die in the West."  I never followed up and the movie proved that it wasn't worth any extra effort.  It was in the back of my mind; was Ted 2 going to be a dud?  Will it be one of many comedy sequels to fall short?  Time after time: it seems more difficult to pull off but I had a feeling this also had the potential of being a side-busting good time... lets dive in!

I was more than satisfied.  The story behind this flick is that Ted gets married to Tami-Lynn and they have marital problems so one of his co-workers says should have a baby to get them past it.  They decide to have a kid but Tami-Lynn ends up being incapable of having children.  When they try and adopt, it's brought to light that Ted isn't considered a "legal" human being with rights.  So they spend the rest of the time fighting for Ted.  On Wahlberg's side he got divorced from Mila Kunis from the last movie (mostly because she got pregnant in real life and wasn't available for shooting) and develops a relationship with the attorney who is representing Ted, played by Amanda Seyfried.  The plot is strictly functional and by the numbers.  There's nothing there that's really daring storyline wise.  No shock there.

Humor wise, things played out like an R-Rated Family Guy episode and it was just what I needed after a long week.  There were again many small nods to Boston life (the Sweet Caroline" thing and Papa Gino's line come to mind).  Being from there, I enjoyed parts on a different personal level.  They even went back a shot scenes with a visibly pissed off Tom Brady after the whole Deflategate scandal broke.  There were some nice cameos and some real quotable lines that I will be using when the situation presents itself.  I'm going to save the bulk of the jokes for you to enjoy!

The cast does well with the work they are given. Wahlberg and Ted are back to being "thunder buddies", I preferred Amanda Seyfried as the female love interest over Mila Kunis as she meshes better with our two heroes sophomoric tendencies... even if she doesn't understand why being named Sam L. Jackson is funny.  Giovanni Ribisi returns Ted's creepy dancing admirer.

This is a far from a perfect showing and isn't as good as the original Ted, but it had me rolling at times.  It felt like Seth MacFarlane saved some of the jokes he was going to use on Family Guy for this movie.  It had cutaways and they did recycle past material: such as the Mark Wahlberg crashing into the semen canister, Ted singing the "Soul Song" in the court room and the law library montage set to "Put One Foot in Front of the Other."

If you're not a fan of Family Guy or the original Ted you'll be disappointed.  If you're a fan though you will find it an entitled chapter in Seth's repertoire, like I did.  I give Ted 2 six out of ten dick-shaped bongs.