Director: Seth MacFarlane
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Morgan Freeman, Jessica Barth, Sam J. Jones, Patrick Warburton, Michael Dorn
Ted and Tammi-Lynn want to have a baby, but a spanner is thrown into the works when the government decides that Ted isn’t actually a person, he’s property. In an effort to fight for his civil rights they travel to New York to try and find a high-profile civil rights lawyer. Meanwhile, someone is hot on their trail trying to capture Ted to find out what makes him so special inside…
I mentioned something similar in my Magic Mike XXL review, and it happens here too. Mila Kunis didn’t return for the sequel so the relationship that was such the focus of the first film is just cast aside. One day I’ll just have to deal with this when it happens in movies.
I really enjoyed Ted but the film that Seth MacFarlane did in between these two, A Million Ways to Die in the West, fell completely flat for me, so I was a little wary going into Ted 2, and while I don’t think it captures the quality of the first film there are some really funny moments, and a decent story.
The issue of personhood is something I’ve always been interested in, and this film feels very similar to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Measure of a Man, in which someone is trying to prove that Data is the property of Starfleet and thus can be dismantled to find out what makes him tick. I’m surprised there weren’t any references to that episode, as it would have been cool to hear a version of Picard’s closing speech.
But for Trekkies there are plenty of references, and I think my favorite sequence was the fight at Comic-Con, and in fact I’m surprised it didn’t go on for longer given MacFarlane’s seeming fondness for fights that can last a whole episode.
I think if you like the first one and you’re a fan of MacFarlane’s humor then this’ll be a decent watch for you. I wasn’t laughing out loud every second, but I did find it enjoyable, and certainly a step back up from A Million Ways to Die in the West.
