Review: Ted 2 (UK Cert 15)

2012's Ted was a real surprise. A raucous comedy about a foul-mouthed teddy bear with wit and an oddly sweet focus on friendship, it was one of my films of the year. Roll on three years and an inevitable sequel has been made.

Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) has married his trailer-trash girlfriend Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) and they decide they want to have a baby. After a misstep with a sperm bank, they try to adopt. This raises an issue: in order to adopt, Ted must prove that he is human. So, Ted, John (Mark Wahlberg) and an idealistic young lawyer named Sam L. Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) go to court to prove Ted is not property.

What follows is a Frank Capra film done through the filter of John Waters. In places, the film is jawdroppingly crude. In others, it's bizarrely touching. There's the usual mix of celebrity cameos, pop culture references and unashamed vulgarity, although there's much more 'story' this time round- Ted's fight to prove his humanity takes up most of the film. 

Performances are generally decent. Mark Wahlberg proves again that he doesn't mind being upstaged by a CGI teddy bear as Ted's best friend John, who is hurting from his divorce and looking to get back in the dating game. MacFarlane is on top form as Ted and is better here than he was in A Million Ways To Die In The West. Amanda Seyfried also proves she's incredibly game with several insults thrown at her and taken in good grace (especially the response to whether she has 'f***-me eyes'). She also provides a nice love interest for Wahlberg's character John.  

That's not to say it's flawless. The re-emergence of weirdo stalker Donny (Giovanni Ribisi), now working for Hasbro, slows the film down- although it does give the film one of the funnier sight gags during the finale at New York Comic-Con. Fans of Family Guy will recognise a few of the gags and sometimes it feels like they've gone for the low-hanging fruit with swearing or crassness in lieu of something more clever.

That said, it's still enjoyable and still funny. Ultimately, whether you'll enjoy it will come down to how you felt about the original film. If you enjoyed Ted, you'll enjoy this (maybe not as much, but still). If you didn't enjoy Ted, you won't. Simple.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Tez