Ted 2

Director: Seth MacFarlane
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 1.0

After animated teddy bear Ted (voiced by MacFarlane) marries his hooker girlfriend Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) and the two decide to have a child together to save their marriage, the authorities decide Ted is actually not a "person" but "property," leaving Ted, his best friend John (Mark Wahlberg) and their newbie attorney Sam (Amanda Seyfried) to "prove" Ted is a sentient being in court. As with most sequels, this one is less endearing and funny than the first Ted - where I found the connection between Wahlberg and his bear to be a lot of fun - with MacFarlane rolling out some trite dick and weed jokes, a few song-and-dance bits (Amanda on guitar!) and making an unwise move to compare the plight of a CGI plushie with the plight of human slaves in America (I understand this supposed to be a silly romp, but it's still a thoughtless tactic). Even at this point in his career, MacFarlane is not above cribbing from himself, swiping gags from his own animated TV shows and stretching out his talents farther than they can be stretched (though letting Liam Neeson be Liam Neeson is always recommended).