After “A Million Ways to Die in the West”, this is a very refreshing return to form for Seth MacFarlane and in my opinion, certain critics have been overly harsh.

First and foremost, this film is funny, which is obviously the major requirement here. There are many great scenes and hilarious lines to be found everywhere, my personal favourite being the wonderfully wrong “shouting sad things at improv” scene, the perfect “you’ll hate yourself, but you’ll laugh” moment that can be found in MacFarlane’s work. I also loved the sublime Kardashian bashing during the sperm bank scene!
Whilst I was initially worried that the film would venture into “A Million Ways” territory, with lots of crassness and embarrassment, it was refreshing to see that the film was kept relatively clean and that it never crossed the “offensiveness line” at any time, though it certainly came close at times!
The performances are great, Amanda Seyfried definitely looking more comfortable than in “A Million Ways” (sorry for continually bringing that up!) and there are many fun cameos from the likes of Liam Neeson and Tom Brady.

In terms of negative points, I will say that “Ted 2” does recycle a lot of jokes from “Family Guy” (writing “penus” on someone’s head, the sperm bank incident and “should’ve brought a poet” to name a few) and looking back, the film does indeed seem more like a feature length FG episode than as a proper sequel to the first film.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I would have also loved to have seen the film ramp up the political incorrectness and perhaps be a tad more risky with the offensiveness, though I understand that if they did, then the film would probably cross some sort of line.
The film also seemed slightly too drawn out. That’s pretty much it.

In conclusion, this is a worthy sequel, which is funny and engaging, though it is not quite as good as the first one. A massive step up from “A Million Ways to Die in the West”, this is a very enjoyable film, with plenty of hilarity to be found throughout.

4 Stars.