Ted

Year: 2012
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Giovanni Ribisi, Seth MacFarlane


Plot: After wishing his teddy bear could talk, John Bennett's stuffed toy Ted comes to life and becomes his best friend. Now as an adult, John is a slacker working at a car rental office and still best friends with his teddy bear. John's lovely girlfriend Lori wants a commitment from him and asks him to choose between her and Ted. What will he do?


Review: Yes, the teddy bear can talk. And he's real funny too. That's the first thing you need to grasp before you can even hope to enjoy this comedy. But good for us, Seth MacFarlane makes it easy by making Ted such a likeable little bear, even if he's foul mouthed most of the time.

MacFarlane, creator of the TV show Family Guy, sort of brings his TV show's style of humour to this film, and it works for the most part. There are tons of 80's references here, from music to TV shows and in particular, Flash Gordon. I'm an 80's child but I'm not familiar with Flash Gordon, so jokes relating to the latter was lost on me, but still whenever the actor playing Flash shows up, it seemed bombastic enough for a laugh. I also liked how MacFarlane got the idea of a talking teddy bear out of the way in the first ten minutes or so to enable Ted to seem normal in an everyday setting. It might seem too convenient from the way it was done, but better this than having to logically explain it throughout the film, right?

Mark Wahlberg plays the slacker John Bennett to perfection and shares great chemistry with MacFarlane who voices Ted. If you had imagined Ted as a regular dude who is a bad influence on you, you'd have no problem following his relationship with John. John is a good guy with a heart of gold, but constantly finds himself stuck in the past whenever Ted shows up. Mila Kunis (how does she look that hot all the time?) is also solid as Lori, the girlfriend who has to compete with Ted for John's attention.

Although the humour is more hit than miss, whenever it misses it's rather unnecessarily bad, like Ted trying to do karaoke (painful). Then there's the subplot with Giovanni Ribisi as a guy who attempts to kidnap Ted for his son, which didn't really gel with the rest of the film. The film's resolution is also too convenient.

Overall, Ted is a solid attempt at making a comedy for guys. It's not perfect but it doesn't really need to be. (3.5/5)