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“I didn’t like the idea when I first heard it”, he said. Making fun of your traditional Bostonian accents is not something I do every day.
There’s a scene in Ted 2 that so perfectly encapsulates what people detest about Seth MacFarlane that you’d swear he stuck it in there just to mess with the haters.
Still, it’s very rare for a MacFarlane venture to be completely unfunny. “The truth is I cried so hard, he was like, ‘Ah, you know what?” Rather than being a treasured Christmas plush toy, Ted 2 begins and ends much like those cheaper, year-round lines of Hallmark holiday bears. Parallels to Dred Scott, the legacy of slavery and America’s history of prejudice and intolerance are made throughout the film, sometimes effectively, sometimes in ways where you think: Huh? Wha? To the first movie’s credit, a lot of the ridiculously crass, misogynist “humor” was broken up with some unusual, yet well-placed nerd stuff. Ex- screen “Flash Gordon” Sam J.
“It’s the kind of thing where there is no good way to pitch this movie”.
Patrick Stewart also returns as the narrator of the storyline. One year after that, Ted’s own once-happy home has become a kitchen-sink melodrama of tears and recriminations (including the amusing notion that Tami-Lynn has been blowing too much of the family budget on shopping sprees at Boston discount retailer Filene’s Basement). Wahlberg, one of Hollywood’s most vocal celebrity Catholics, welcomes the controversy the film might stir even as he predicts it might not register with some moviegoers in Ted 2’s young male demographic. Unfortunately, their efforts cause them to suddenly appear on the legal radar in a way they didn’t expect, and suddenly Ted is forced to defend himself and his civil rights. This time around, though, MacFarlane is going for something bigger: In the opening scene, Ted gets hitched to his lady love, Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth); months later, there’s trouble in paradise, and in a classic comedy setup ripped straight from the misguided motivations of real life, the two decide that having a child will fix their marriage.
The entire story is clunky. The only way to save their relationship, Ted reasons, is for him and Tami-Lynn to have a child – a plan that faces only one small hitch: the father’s lack of anatomical correctness. Unlike the first movie, the sequel struggles to tell a coherent story. At this point, you could just about feel and hear the whole theatre squirming at the Aussie premiere. But when Seyfried finally received the finished script from MacFarlane, she learned that the film had taken a drastic turn and the road-trip aspect of Ted 2 had been all but been eviscerated. She even manages to overcome MacFarlane’s typically goofy decision to name her character Samantha L. Jackson. She even gets to put her lovely singing voice to work with a guitar and a campfire. Unfortunately, BF Ryan Reynolds isn’t in the picture anymore. The Liam Neeson cameo does, too. “I definitely got the hang of it after a while”. What I said three years ago about the formula in “Ted” goes for “Ted 2″: MacFarlane’s career is built on “a high quotient of startlingly crude ethnic and cultural stereotypes leavened by a honest appreciation for American popular music of another era”. He’s still the guy who tells a joke, then feels the need to explain it before moving on.
Well, the kids are out of school so what better way to celebrate than a reimagining of the classic Pinocchio story except with a weed-smoking anthropomorphic teddy bear with the mouth of a b-circuit stripper’s bodyguard/boyfriend? “She’s somebody I’d want to know”, said Seyfried, whereas Louise was incredibly mean. But does anyone watching Ted 2 really want anything more than that?
Amanda Seyfried has recently whacked the expectations of what it is like to lock lips with Mark Wahlberg down to a notch.
The Downside: When it’s not being amusing in spurts, the movie grinds to a halt with its lack of energy. He’s now a franchise star.
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