I know Ted looks totally ridiculous but it’s actually a good movie. No, really. The whole thing entertains like a long episode of Family Guy; set up, joke, set up, joke. Except it never gets tiring or unassuming. The plot is thin, but who cares, you’re going to see a Seth MacFarlane movie.
The story is simple enough. A friendless John receives a teddy bear for Christmas and wishes it would come alive. The bear does and the two become best friends. Cut to many years later where John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted are 30somethings who spend their time smoking pot and obsessing over Flash Gordon. It’s your typical man-child growing up scenario, with some strange kidnapping subplot thrown in for good measure. Like I said, the plot isn’t what’s most enjoyable about the film.
Mark Wahlberg has taken a while to warm up on me, but since Ted (and his amazing interview on Conan last night), I have officially become a fan. The chemistry between Wahlberg and Ted the talking teddy bear (voiced by MacFarlane) is incredible. How someone can have chemistry with what is a computer animated toy is beyond me. Mila Kunis fills out the primary cast and despite her somewhat two dimensional character, she’s just always fun to look at.
MacFarlane really perfects the bromance banter in this film, a talent previously associated with Judd Apatow and Todd Philips. What these guys realize is that often the most enjoyable thing about a bromance is the mere conversation between two friends that are hopelessly in love with each other (no homo). Unlike Adam Sandler schlock which indicates that male interaction is merely constant farting, drinking, strip clubs and falling down, these guys are smart in their immaturity. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t enough of those things thrown in for good measure. What’s impressive about Ted is that even though there are typical gimmicks that comedies have now (strange cameo’s by C listers playing themselves, a humiliating musical number) it still remained funny. I’m not going to say it’s fresh comedy but it’s not stale by any means.
Sure, it’s not going to be an Oscar contender (or any award contender for that matter) but you won’t be disappointed in Ted at all. Thus starts a promising career of MacFarlane in film, that crazy bastard.
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