MikePA's Movie Review of Ted

Review: Ted
MikePA - wrote on 06/30/12

Seth MacFarlane's Ted isn't like most modern comedies, where soulless characters just throw a bunch of unfunny jokes and puns at you in hope for a chuckle or two. Ted is a real comedy. It's the real deal. It's dirty, it's profane, it's (somewhat) offensive, and beneath all of that is a great big heart. Even if you're not fully enveloped into the story, there's so much here to appreciate: the writing, the energy, and, most importantly, Ted himself.

The simple premise of Ted is just... f*cking brilliant. It's so wacky and so knowingly dumb that you just can't help but laugh at it. It pokes fun at itself, which is what makes the movie so good. Young John Bennett is a lonely, friend-less little boy who gets a teddy bear for Christmas. He loves it to death and names it Teddy. "I wish you can really talk," John says one night. And, what do you know! The next morning, the bear can talk! And John's parents' reaction to the talking bear ripped the vocal chords out of me. It's absolutely priceless. Years later, John (Mark Wahlberg) is a 35-year-old man, still lives with Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) who is a stoner, and has a girlfriend named Lori (Mila Kunis). Lori wants her relationship between John and herself to grow, but Ted is in the way of things. And everything basically builds up from there.

Ted is a very funny movie. It's smart, it's well-written and directed by MacFarlane, and it's just a lot of fun. The character Ted is so damn funny and lovable, which is what makes the movie work so well on a character-driven level and an emotional level. It makes the movie more heartfelt and meaningful to the audience. The highest points of the film is diffidently the script and MacFarlene's voice acting as Ted. Seth MacFarlene, creator of the hit show Family Guy, does a terrific job both writing Ted and acting as him. You here a little bit of Peter Griffin in his voice, which the movie actually makes a funny joke about. There's also some sub-plots which may get in the way of the main story, but I didn't really mind it. One of them is about this guy (Giovanni Ribisi) who's overly obsessed with Ted and must have him. While it seems a little unnecessary, it's still very, very funny.

The only problem with the film that I can think of is in the first act, all you really care about is the character Ted. You want to see Ted. Only Ted. That's it. Therefore, when John and Lori have long conversations with each other about their relationship, it gets pretty boring. But what's good is that in the second half you start to care more about John and Lori and where their relationship goes. But that's just a small problem. Nothing major.

I'd like to see Seth MacFarlane write and direct more mainstream movies. I like Family Guy and I totally think he should continue with that, but I really think he should expand his talent more into the film-making territory. With Ted, he proved he can make a funny movie and develop characters and a plot, so I'd like to see where else he goes if he decides to make more movies.

Go see Ted. It's so funny and constantly entertaining from start to finish. Yes, the film has its problems, but as a comedy and as an entertainment it's great. It's terrific fun. Go see it and enjoy it.

3/4 (See it)