Review Roundup: Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane are Back in TED 2

Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane are back, reprising their roles in the sequel to the 2012 comedy TED. TED 2 was directed by Seth MacFarlane who co-wrote the film with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.

TED 2 follows the storyline of newlywed couple TED and Tami-Lynn who want to have a baby. But, in order to qualify as a parent in the eyes of the law, TED must prove he is a person and not just a Teddy Bear.

TED 2 stars Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Giovanni Ribisi, and Morgan Freeman.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Manohla Dargis, The New York Times: "Ted 2" comes off as more inept and thoughtless than intentionally hateful. The charitable take is that Mr. MacFarlane wanted to take on race (slavery - lighten up, people!) but doesn't have the skills to do so. Less charitably, he doesn't have the mind-set, the compassion or actual interest. He wants to be an equal-opportunity insulter, which is impossible because there is no genuine equality, either on-screen or off. That doesn't mean that race or black penises can't be turned into comedy gold, as Mel Brooks figured out in "Blazing Saddles." And this isn't a question of political correctness, the default complaint of those who just want their critics to shut up. If anything, American comedies need to take on race more, to test boundaries and audiences alike. First, though, they have to grasp the differences between appropriation and engagement, and between comedy that supports the racist status quo and comedy that shreds it to pieces. Just sliming us doesn't cut it.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Critics blew snob snot all over Seth MacFarlane's TED in 2012, claiming to be above the vulgar antics of a teddy bear, voiced by director and co-writer MacFarlane, talking s to his real-life Boston buddy John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg). Audiences made TED one of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies ever. They'll do it again with TED 2 because even when MacFarlane pushes too hard and long, he keeps the jokes gut-busting and laced with satirical bite. The tenderness between TED and John - Wahlberg plays this likable dim bulb with winning dexterity - is an unexpected treat.

Scott Foundas, Variety: The magical TEDDY BEAR with the heart of gold and the mouth of potty is back in "Ted 2," and so is writer-director-star Seth MacFarlane's mischievous mojo, which went missing somewhere in last year's mirthless comic Western "A Million Ways to Die in the West." A sequel to MacFarlane's surprise 2012 smash ($549 million worldwide), "Ted 2" is surely the last movie one would expect to find quoting from the anthropologist Dawn Prince-Hughes' writings on the essence of human consciousness. But in its own, sweetly subversive way, this might be just the tolerance plea America needs right now - a movie that says, in effect, "Love thy plushie as thyself." Fret not: Such high-mindedness has little diminished MacFarlane's appetite for locker-room humor, gross-out sight gags and bounteous pop-culture in-jokes, which should make "Ted 2" the season's go-to attraction for arrested-adolescent males of all ages, and continue Universal's beary good summer box office.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair: TED 2 strains to be the synthesis of those two halves, of what made MacFarlane famous and his deeper creative temperament, and there are moments when that tonal zigging and zagging works. But they are ultimately warring impulses, and the dorm-room comedy routine too often wins. So leave that s at home next time, Mr. MacFarlane, and let the other Seth sing.

Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian: There's not much cinematic in Ted 2. It's shot like flat television, but a lot of dough surely went into the animation of the lifelike bear. And it's that level of perfectionism that makes some of these offensive jokes acceptable.

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Sequels to comedies tend to be superfluous. Did we really need a follow-up to "Airplane!"? Or "The Hangover"? Or "The Phantom Menace"? "Ted 2" was also unnecessary, and the movie's as much of a mess as the scene in which the boys extravagantly mismanage an encounter with a rack of sperm donations. Yet "Ted 2" has so many moments of crazy brilliance that I laughed a lot, if infrequently. Is a ballplayer who whiffs four times but hits the ball 500 feet on his fifth try worth watching? I say yes.

Jacob Hall, New York Daily News: "Ted 2" is the equivalent of a middle school bully. It's not as funny as it thinks it is. Its penchant for casual cruelty masks a hollow soul. And it will be totally forgotten once we move onto bigger and better things.

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Like its 2012 predecessor, Seth MacFarlane's Ted 2 kicks off like a delirious blast of laughing gas. Even though we're all familiar with the film's one-joke premise by now-the raunchy, bromantic adventures of an affably underachieving Boston chowderhead (Mark Wahlberg) and his childhood pal, an adorable stuffed bear come to foulmouthed life (voiced by MacFarlane)-the sequel still manages to walk the tightrope between clever and crass. For a while, at least. Then, after the 10th or 11th semen gag, crass wins out, leaving clever in the dust. That's when you realize what it must be like to be trapped in detention with a bunch of 15-year-old boys who think there's nothing more hilarious than repeating the same jokes about porn, pot, and pulling your pud over and over again. It's funny, until it's not.

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Although the original's over-the-top vulgarity has been dialed down a notch, Ted 2 still offers plenty of R-rated laughs involving sex, rampant pot smoking and profane language that will surely prove a challenge to network censors when the film is aired on television. It's also once again filled with endless pop culture references, including elaborate sequences recalling such 80's-era films as The Breakfast Club and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Pete Hammond, Deadline: Wahlberg shows great physical comedy gifts again here, and MacFarlane's Ted is perfection. Seyfried is a delight and even gets to sing a sweet new tune, "Mean Old Moon," written by MacFarlane and Walter Murphy. It could land this sequel a Best Song Oscar nom, just as the first Ted also did for MacFarlane.

Photo Credit: Official Facebook

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