Ted 2 (2015)

Directed by Seth MacFarlane. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Giovanni Ribisi, John Slattery, John Carroll Lynch, Morgan Freeman, Patrick Warburton, Michael Dorn, Sam J. Jones, Ron Canada, Bill Smitrovich, (voice) Seth MacFarlane. [R]

The potty-mouthed, pot-smoking teddy-bear-come-to-life is back, but the definition of his “life” has come into question; after marrying his abrasive sweetie (Barth) and trying to adopt a kid, authorities determine that he does not qualify since he’s not an actual person. He and his BFF Wahlberg take their civil rights case to court, but this is (unfortunately) just the beginning. Overplotted sequel to the comedy hit works best on the edges, where the politically-incorrect slackers and stoners can just riff with throwaways and cutaways, but the plodding story keeps pushing them out of their comfort zone, and laughs become fewer and farther in between in the second half. The script also makes the deadening mistake of bringing back the worst element of the first film—the unpleasant, Ted-obsessed creep played by Ribisi; he’s like one of those recurring “Family Guy” jokes that wasn’t funny the first time and becomes exasperating by the eighth or ninth (a better example of a repeated joke here: Google’s raunchy search recommendation). Contains plenty of cameos, with Liam Neeson’s being the funniest.

58/100