My thoughts on Ted 2 are essentially the same for the first film; it’s a high quality, very funny episode of Family Guy. The film’s humor is crude, politically incorrect, and entirely unapologetic—similar to what Pitch Perfect 2 aimed to accomplish, expect here it’s funny and lacking mean-spiritedness. Ted 2 shares with Family Guy a love for isolated cutaway gags, 1980s film references, and several musical numbers; unlike most modern Family Guy episodes however, the film’s humor is effective, its jokes plentiful, and its characters entertainingly likable.
Director Seth MacFarlane (who also voices Ted) makes a wise decision focusing more on character chemistry and energetic humor over the plot’s more serious events—which is not to say the serious aspects are disregarded, as the film gives time for several thoughtful scenes (some occurring in a courtroom and one during the finale). Yet such scenes never outdo Ted 2’s spirited comedy, which is the heart and soul of the film’s effectiveness. MacFarlane avoids the same mistakes made in the pointlessly serious and lackluster A Million Ways to Die in the West, as well as a few absolutely horrible Family Guy episodes (such as the cringe-worthy domestic abuse episode Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q ).
The crude jokes are delightfully all over the place—a few highlights from Ted 2’s first 20 minutes include Ted’s bachelor party watching a “porno” of wild bears mating, how Google always assumes you’re trying to look up black c*cks (a running gag), and a scene of trying to spot someone on cocaine (which cuts to a slow pan of average party guests plus one aggressively energetic man vigorously jumping rope). There are a ton of short cameos throughout the film, including Tom Brady, Jay Leno, Dennis Haysbert and Liam Neeson. Neeson’s cameo involves him trying to buy Trix Cereal while under the assumption it’s only for kids—the scene uses Neeson’s excessive seriousness to hilarious results, which is exactly what should’ve been done in A Million Ways to Die in the West. My favorite joke in the film combines Jurassic Park with weed—an interesting mishmash which had me in stitches!
I dislike the way Mila Kunis’ character gets cut out of Ted 2, as it felt too one-sidedly against her part. The film makes up for this however, with the addition of Ted’s lawyer Samantha L. Jackson (Amanda Seyfried), who plays an effective buddy role alongside Ted and John (Mark Wahlberg). There’s such wonderful chemistry between the three characters—Sam is likewise a huge pothead, partaking in the many wacky hijinks while also providing some humorous character contrasts. She’s well versed in classic literature, but clueless about modern pop culture—the opposite of both Ted and Mark, who are shocked at her obliviousness of actor Samuel L Jackson.
Ted 2 succeeds in maintaining the same high energy and zany humor as its predecessor, redeeming MacFarlane from his previous film blunder—in fact I enjoy Ted 2 a bit more than the first, mostly due to its solid chemistry between the three main characters. The plot likewise never goes exactly as predicted, an aspect which keeps Ted 2 from getting stale and cliché. The Ted series have been entertainingly fun comedy pieces, and frankly I would love for MacFarlane to direct another sequel in the near future.
P.S. While this really doesn’t have much to do with Ted 2, I wanted to emphasize how sick I’m getting of films excessively using the talk-show host cliché—having said film portray actual talk-show hosts discussing film event as if they were real life situations. These scenes are always awkwardly unfunny and I’m really tired at how often they have been recently used.