Ted 2

This review may contain spoilers!

I used to say Seth MacFarlane could make fantastic films even if I didn't like his shows; I have to say that I don't think I'll be saying that ever again. I would give Ted 2 a 3.5/10.

The parts of this film that were really enjoyable were the skit comedy moments; I use that term loosely and in the same way that you would describe Family Guy. Often enough there's a great piece of comedy or a pretty powerful message in Family Guy but you wouldn't describe the show as good. That's the exact same manner in which i would say the comedy and themes in Ted 2 were presented as good.

Mark Wahlberg, who played John, was a great main character; he brought a more grounded yet entertaining aspect to the film. Seth MacFarlane, who voiced Ted, was a great protagonist; he really drove the film and his comedy was phenomenal. Amanda Seyfried, who played Samantha, brought a really powerful presence to the film; in fact her defense of Ted was one of her best scenes in the film. Morgan Freeman, who played Patrick Meighan, was one of the stand out performances despite his minor number of scenes; Freeman gave a very strong character who could also be quite amusing. Patrick Warburton and Michael Dorn, who played Guy and Rick respectively, were really funny characters; they also portrayed a really half decent couple. John Slattery, who played Shep Wild, was perfect as a ruthless lawyer; he gave an incredibly engaging performance in one of the best scenes of the film.

However the best performance came from Liam Neeson, who played the Customer. Neeson parodied his classic action roles in a really funny way. There was nothing gratuitous about it, it was just a hell of a lot of fun. It's great to see that Neeson can parody himself in a light and amusing way. It also speaks volumes for the film that it's best performance came from a cameo to be fair.

The story of this film lost it's way, it didn't focus upon it's themes but rather it's low brow humour. This was an unfortunate direction for the film and was ultimately the reason it felt like it dragged on for an incredibly long period of time. The soundtrack for this film was all over the place, there were some amusing choices but the pick and choose nature of the songs wore thin. The cinematography was very basic, there wasn't a hell of a lot special about the choices made there. furthermore the special effects of Ted himself didn't stretch beyond what we've seen before; these were some incredibly basic 3D animation models.

Jessica Barth, who played Tami-Lynn, was a character who was all over the place in terms of her motivation and connections with other characters; this was very much an instance where they wasted an opportunity with a character who could have played a strong role. Giovanni Ribisi, who played Donny, was baffling to me; why they decided to bring him back as the main antagonist stupefies me. Sam J. Jones, who played Himself, was no longer the entertaining cameo that he was in the last film; now he was just a victim of MacFarlane's numerous crude jokes. John Carroll Lynch, who played Tom Jessup, was merely there to give Ribisi purpose; he wasn't a great antagonist or screen presence.