Ted 2

(MA15+) ★★½

Director: Seth MacFarlane.

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Morgan Freeman, Giovanni Ribisi.

"It says here you have to insert your penis into my vagina... yeah, this isn't gonna work."

HAS there ever been a comedy sequel that matches the original?

None come to mind, and Ted 2 certainly isn’t the exception that proves the rule.

It’s probably funnier than a lot of comedies, but its hit-miss ratio still skews to the miss side and certainly doesn’t have the high number of LOLs its predecessor had.

This sequel picks up where the last one left off, opening with the anthropomorphic teddy bear of the title (voiced by writer/director MacFarlane) getting married to his beloved white-trash girlfriend Tami-Lynn (Barth).

The wedded bliss doesn’t last long, leading Ted and Tami-Lynn to try for a baby to get their marriage back on track.

But their quest for a child raises red flags with the government regarding the legal status of a toy brought to life by a child's wish - is Ted a person or a piece of property?

The meandering plot dabbles with themes of civil rights, touching on race issues and gay marriage and adding a nice level of depth to a film that is otherwise pre-occupied with profanity, pot and porn.

It's those three Ps that provide the laughs again, and though the schtick wears thinner this time around, the CG teddy bear and his 'thunderbuddy' John (Wahlberg) are still a funny pairing.

Wahlberg's under-utilised comedic talents are again a highlight, as is newcomer Seyfried as Sam, Ted's bong-smoking lawyer and John's new love interest.

As with the original, this is strictly for fans of MacFarlane's brand of humour, which he honed with his show Family Guy.

That cartoon's success and the surprise box office domination of Ted have given MacFarlane carte blanche to do what he likes, as evidenced by his misfiring anachronistic western A Million Ways To Die In The West and the excesses on show in Ted 2.

The best examples of the latter are a Busby Berkeley-style opening credits sequence and a musical interlude of Seyfried singing Mean Ol' Moon, both of which add little to the film and nothing to the plot and seem to be there because MacFarlane wants them there. Ditto for his drawn-out pop culture references, such as riffs on Revenge Of The Nerds and Jurassic Park, and a few other gag sequences that don't work and just slow things down in an already overlong movie.

MacFarlane is a talent, no doubt, but his best may be yet to come. Ted was up there, but Ted 2 suffers from comedy sequelitis (if there is such a thing).

For the few jokes that work and the team-up of Ted, Wahlberg and Seyfried, this follow-up is worth a look but only if you loved the original.