Ted 2 (2015), R, ★★

The Adventures of John and Ted with Amanda Seyfried.

The cuddly, foul-mouthed talking bear is back trying to make us laugh with his pop culture references and political hubbub that made us appreciate the character and the first movie. I do not know whether Ted was an inspiration to many people wanting a bear like him and pretend to either play with it or maybe smoke weed from a bong and/or get high. But, a motivation for the audience to be entertained by him again has to prompt Seth MacFarlane to create a story with twisted and loathsome humor to persuade us to laugh. I laughed at some moments at the very least but it was redundant to the plot and McFarlane pushes the story to become too self-serious that it becomes forgettable movie of little importance.

The movie brings us to Ted's (Seth MacFarlane) and Tami-Lynn's (Jessica Barth) wedding as Sam Jones is presiding over their nuptials and we also find out that John (Mark Wahlberg) is depressed because he divorced Lori (Mila Kunis, who is not in the sequel because she was pregnant at the time of filming) six months ago. It goes really well but then we observe a year later that their marriage is not going well as bills pile up as their income is not met because both are cashiers and also Tami-Lynn buys a lot of clothes and Ted buys a lot of weed and they both get into an argument.

But, later, John and Ted complain and discuss about Ted having a kid. But, the problem is and here is the truth: Ted does not have a penis and does not have the ability to impregnate Tami-Lynn. Also, Tami-Lynn is barren because of her massive drug usage and therefore, the artificial insemination cannot work. And, also, they cannot adopt and Ted is declared more of a product than a human. Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) is their lawyer taking on a case for Ted to declare his human rights to the court, even, though she is smart, she is also a pot-smoking and pop-culture free lawyer. What will it take for Ted to become a legal "human" citizen?

Uh, oh, Ted is not a legal citizen. 

Again, I admitted that I laughed and chuckle in some parts and there was one scene that made me laugh a little harder but my problem with the movie that they are three separate movies in this film. It is an R-ranted and raunchy comedy, a human rights drama and a short and standard action movie. To me, one aspect succeeds more than the other two whereas that one successful aspect does not incorporate well into the human rights aspect. The jokes are filled with sex jokes, homophobic jokes, drug jokes, poop jokes and well, a sperm joke sequence. Most of the jokes were tasteless and just a little patent to that big product that was not funny. Some of the jokes that were laughable were restrained and random and it did work but mostly, for a Family Guy episode.

Mark Wahlberg really delivers comedy well and is truly an underrated comic actor as he is in the first Ted movie and The Other Guys with Will Ferrell. He has great chemistry with the bear again as he is performed well by Seth McFarlane. It is somewhat of a CGI creation that everyone adores. Amanda Seyfried is solid as the lawyer delivering a balance between likability, charisma and humor with the two characters. Morgan Freeman is solid but the plot really has his character for the soliloquy about human rights in the big courtroom scene. We did not need the Giovanni Ribisi character again as he is there just to make us angry again. There are also a few cameos that I cannot give away that made me laugh

This is a movie that is filled with moments that make you laugh at the foul-mouthed and raunchy dialogue. However, the second-half with the drama and the climax at Comic-Con was sagging and not fun. But, there is a certain expectation from McFarlane that you want that has to earn your pleasure of this entertainment. And, again, he does not fail but it's not quite up to par to his best material. Clearly, it is not as abysmal as his previous movie, A Million Ways to Die in the West. But, it is like a metal detector finding something valuable in a backyard but has a 15-minute time span in between before you detect another big sound from the detector. It is a product filled with likable characters, some laughable humor and a good message in there somewhere but it is kind of a mess when you open the product. Oh, well, you did better, Seth, but keep improving.

**