Viewed in
2012
Formats
Movie theater.
Premise
Mark Wahlberg stars as a loser with a talking teddy bear (Seth MacFarlane).
Liked
Quirky and raunchy humor.
Disliked
Last act.
Thoughts
Very funny at times. It had a strong mix of low-brow comedy, sharp 1970's/1980's pop culture references, and a touch of absurdist humor. Shockingly, at the point of this review, I had yet to watch a full episode of Family Guy, so I assume this combination of jokes was very MacFarlane-esqe. I'm sure I missed tons of inside jokes, but the ones I caught elicited some of the biggest laughs. Overall, I was more of a fan of his obscure reference gags than fart gags. There was something truly bizarre watching a parody of the Airplane! scene that parodied Saturday Night Fever. Very meta.
The writing got good mileage out of the adult-minded teddy bear gimmick. I immediately compared it to Paul. Here, MacFarlane's creation was much more of an original/organic character, instead of just a foul-mouthed voice over from a famous dude. Wahlberg carried the film fine. Milas Kunis was very likable, and I liked that the movie makers did not make her a standard shrill-voiced girlfriend in the friendship triangle. I enjoyed the numerous celebrity cameos, all with a sense of humor, including Norah Jones and Patrick Stewart. If I were a Flash Gordon fan, I probably would've geeked out over Sam Jones too. But the best cameo belonged to Ryan Reynolds. (Yes, I'm a closet fan of his.)
Unfortunately, the last third was a mess, resorting to action sets instead of keeping the comedy and dynamics at the wheel. Giovanni Ribisi's subplot started off interesting, but devolved into something creepy, but not creepy enough to be funny. There were also some predictable bromance and rom-com situations, although most were executed very well to big laughs.
I'm assuming Seth MacFarlane fans will greatly enjoy Ted. For the rest of us, I still find it very recommendable thanks to the writing and strong comedic performances.
Personal
Just like in Paul, my inner film maker is very curious to know how expensive/difficult it was to get all the sci-fi licenses and clearances.
