When you are a kid, somewhere in your life you had a teddy bear, or an imaginary friend. The teddy bear was good, but it didn’t talk back to you, and well the imaginary friend did, but you kind of look funny talking to nothing, so the dream scenario would be a talking teddy bear and I am not talking about Teddy Ruxpin. Back in 2012 Seth MacFarlane had to be thinking the same thing as he brought “Ted “ to the big screen and made so many kids dreams come true, or maybe just mine. “Ted” wasn’t just making wishes come true, he also laughed along with the audience to a tune of $218,000,00 final box office total, and with money like that, you get enough to make a bad western-comedy and a teddy bear sequel.
Now that MacFarlane has come back from the west, it is only natural he brings back everyone’s favorite foul mouth bear. We pick up sometime later; Ted (Seth MacFarlane) and Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) are married and what started off as bliss, turned into a real marriage as the disagreements begin. While Ted and Tami-Lynn are having their problems, John (Mark Wahlberg) is mourning the loss of his own marriage. As Ted tries to figure out how to bring the love back to his marriage, he comes up with the idea to have a baby, but after problems arise, the couple soon turns to adoption, and that is where more problems for Ted begin. It seems the state does not recognize Ted as a person, but as property instead. Not wanting to stand for that, Ted and John hire Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) to help Ted out, and to prove once for all that he is more then just a stuffed teddy bear, but a person of sound, body, and mind.
Now we all know MacFarlane can deliver the laughs, all you have to do is tune in to his TV series “Family Guy” to see that. For all the fans of that show “Ted” was everything good about “Family Guy”, but with a talking bear. Well, how ever he got lost with “A Million Ways to Die in the West”, he found his map, and found ways to make you laugh, and laugh a lot. MacFarlane has the ability to make almost anything funny, and proves it with every off color joke and pop culture reference that he can throw at you. Pop culture is always such an easy target, and MacFarlane seems to hit the bulls-eye more often then not. Teaming up again with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, MacFarlane doesn’t miss much beats, even topping his “Flash Gordon” story line from the first film. While the film will have you laughing uncontrollably, the film does have a few flaws, mainly with the run time. While the high points have you on a high, when the film has it’s slower points, you feel them, as the film might have been better served about ten to fifteen minutes shorter. With that said, you could always look at the slow points as great recovery time from the mountains of laughter you be experiencing. “Ted 2” is the perfect movie to break up the Superhero, dinosaur, and fast cars that have dominated the summer so far, so relax and let Ted make you laugh so hard you’ll cry. Your imaginary friend will love it too.
Brian Taylor
