One, for compulsion
‘Ted 2’ starts exactly where its predecessor ends. Not with John’s (Mark Wahlberg) marriage but with Ted’s (Seth MacFarlane) with Tami (Jessica Barth). Just like how America doesn’t give a fuck, here too the situation repeats, and Ted proves he’s just as human as anyone with the problems with his wife. With Amanda Seyfried instead of Mila Kunis, it’s basically a repeat of the first part in different situation, like how ‘The Hangover 2’ was criticised. Despite the criticism whether ‘Ted 2’ was as funny as ‘The Hangover 2’ was the question.
The film’s story didn’t feel really like a compulsion but the fact that the same question was not raised in part one was what it made the film special. Ted being given a special status, being hallucinated are typical stories which anyone would think of when one starts writing about a lice teddy bear. ‘Ted’ worked because it was stripped off these. That’s the beauty. So, when it starts like this here, it was ‘meh’. Despite the film running on usual lines, it was fairly entertaining with its jokes but wasn’t as wholesome as part one.
Mark Wahlberg was terrific as John. Even though all the concentration was centred around Ted. It was John who makes the film work. He looked tired and gloomy in the film, may be a bit old too but luckily for him, the story’s development can be attributed to this. He’s a man who has tried so much and still lost his wife. Or may be simply they couldn’t get Mila Kunis call sheet.
Another beautiful thing about the movie was that, just like how charming Mila Kunis was in the first movie. Amanda Seyfried does the same in the second movie. For a film, which is largely a boy-guy fantasy movie, it was a welcome change. Maybe it was overdid a little in this part like she smoking pot and playing guitar in the middle of nowhere as if she was born for John. It would have been a bit more realistic if her character had been given a slightly different flavour.
When John says, “Déjà vu” when he gets to know that Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) tries to steal Ted, it was like, what part of the film was not Déjà vu. That’s why there was no thrill around the climax. Worst part was Donny’s kidnap scenes but when John was in bed, it was absolutely clear that he was not going to die, not in this movie. Ted laughing for the joke was more funnier than the entire incident. If it had achieved in making the audience emotional and then broken up to this, it would have been amazing.
The film’s stand out scene would be the ‘cum’ scene, but that’s about it. The first part had many of those laugh out loud scenes which worked like a charm. Here may be the film tried to be nicer or just the director ran out of jokes or worst, I watched the part two too soon and, in a way, unrealistically expected it to be as much funnier as part one. Finally, why Morgan Freeman. He totally didn’t fit the movie. If he had been another guy who’d have had a hilarious interaction with John and Ted, well, that could have been some movie.
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