4/10

If i told you the same joke over and over again, would you find it as funny the 3rd, 4th, or even 7th time? That is the question facing ‘Ted 2’, and the comedy it entails. A couple years after the near death of a magical teddy bear come to life, Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law. Ted and Johnny (Mark Wahlberg) recruit a young and inexperienced lawyer (Amanda Seyfried) to head up the case, and complete the trio’s wacky adventures. While ‘Ted 2’ is a welcome addition to the Seth Macfarlane library after the terrible disappointment that was ‘A Million Ways to Die in The West’, it lacks the kind of comedic originality and storyline sync to come anywhere close to a worthy effort of it’s irresistable original. There are some laughs in the movie. A lot of these are supported by some honorable tributes to classic films like ‘Plains, Trains, and Automobiles’, ‘The Breakfast Club’, and even ‘Jurassic Park’. There are also some well timed A-list cameos that while they don’t follow the ongoing storyline, they do give the audience a great chuckle in the intermissions. What made the original work so well was that there was a storyline in the film about Johnny giving up his freedoms for the love he has searched so long for. The movie stuck to that premise pretty faithfully and it paid off huge in the end. With this sequel, we get glimpses of a courtroom trial, but no more than ten total minutes, and a joke of a final verdict that someone with as little education as i could’ve pulled off the victory. The end result is so laughable that you wonder why Macfarlane sat us through nearly two hours of skits (not scenes) that have nothing to do with the point the script is trying to convey. The run time is once again too long for a comedy that doesn’t have that much to offer. Many dry scenes that either repeat the same joke (Happens A LOT) or takes too long to get to it’s punchline, drag the movie down in a cloudy haze of tired marijuana jokes, and sometimes nasty visuals that would make the Farelly Brothers say enough is enough. Seyfried is a welcome addition, but i frankly miss the comedic timing of Mila Kunis in the love interest of John. Giovanni Ribisi returns for a storyline that is completely pointless and only drags the film out longer than needed. Most will argue with me about this point, but i challenge you to give me three worthy reasons why this character was brought back to do the EXACT SAME THINGS for this movie. I mentioned before that there is some nice comedic moments, however rare they occur. If there is one thing Macfarlane can do, it’s slip in a nice subtle joke that makes the audience pause for a minute to ponder if they really heard that correctly. ‘Ted 2’ is just the latest to fall into comedy sequel purgatory. With many of the same jokes repeated, Macfarlane’s schtick is heartless inside, just like it’s main character.