The Movie Guy: The raunchy teddy bear still gets laughs
Published 8:50 am Friday, June 26, 2015
Writer director performer Seth MacFarlane is a very funny man, although his humor certainly isn’t for everyone. Case in point, his latest film, “Ted 2” is filled with an onslaught of raunchy jokes, pot-laced humor and gross out sight gags. Much of it is undeniably funny.
That being said, there’s really not much that’s new this time around. If you were a fan of the original movie, you’ll still enjoy the humor in “Ted 2.” If you weren’t a fan, then this is definitely not the movie for you.
For those of you who don’t remember, Ted was a lonely little boy’s teddy bear who came to life one night. A few decades pass and the boy, John (Mark Wahlberg) and his magical childhood toy (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) are still best friends, but now they are also potty-mouthed, porn-loving, pot smoking slackers.
The guys did get married, but Ted the talking teddy bear’s relationship is falling apart. In order to save his marriage, he and his wife (Jessica Barth) decide to have a baby. That’s difficult to do as most children’s toys aren’t given the anatomy needed to conceive a child. After an attempt at artificial insemination goes predictably awry, Ted decides to adopt a child, only to find that he can’t because legally, he is still just a toy.
Ted and John find a chill supporter for their cause in the form of a pot-smoking young lawyer named Sam(antha) L. Jackson, played gamely by Amanda Seyfried. The rest of the film turns into an absurd courtroom drama where Ted takes on nothing less than the Dred Scott decision to prove that he deserves to have the same rights as any other citizen.
Of course, this plot only serves as a framework for MacFarlane’s non-stop barrage of potty-mouthed jokes. I am happy to report that there is still a lot of fun to be had watching a beloved childhood toy being transformed into a crude mouthpiece for MacFarlane’s out-of-control Id. Not all of these moments work, but the idea is to throw hundreds of jokes against the wall to see which ones stick. Many of those jokes fall flat, but the ones that work are very, very funny.
The crowd I was with laughed frequently and loudly. That is the litmus test for any comedy, so while I might prefer to see Ted and John try some new things in their movies, I won’t complain. More importantly, fans of the original movie won’t complain either because they’ll be too busy laughing.
Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in “The Port Arthur News” and seen weekly on KFDM and KBTV. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@sbgtv.com.com.