Ted
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane (voice), Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Warburton, Patrick Stewart (voice), Tom Skerritt, Laura Vandervoot, Norah Jones
Directed by: Seth MacFarlane
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
2012

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A man (Mark Wahlberg) who wished his Teddy Bear (Seth MacFarlane) to life as a child faces challenges with that friendship when his girlfriend (Mila Kunis) wants their relationship to be more serious.

Review:

Tim: I was so prepared to absolutely love Ted. It's from Seth MacFarlane, whose "Family Guy" is hilarious, and he was making his directorial debut. It featured a humorous, clever premise, and it looked really funny. It's also one of the most successful comedies of all time, and received really good reviews. I very much enjoyed this film, but I couldn't quite make myself love it. It is very good, but it misses out on greatness.

The story is terrific. A man wishes his Teddy Bear was real, and it becomes real. I actually loved the beginning of the movie, when they explain what happened after the Teddy Bear came to life (as you can imagine, the world took notice). That was so critical to setting this up as a believable world, and it helped me to buy everything I was watching on screen. There's something so funny about watching a cute, cuddly teddy bear say some vile, disgusting things, do drugs, and cause all kinds of havoc. It was really funny to watch.

The problem with the movie is that the story is good, but a bit too forgettable. There's the relationship drama between Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, a kidnapping plot, and the broken friendship between Wahlberg and Ted. These are interesting, but they don't always work together brilliantly. The story just left something to be desired. It was very good, but not quite great.

Mark Wahlberg is pretty good in the lead role. I'm finding it harder and harder not to like him, and he gives another good performance here. The scene where he names trashy girl names is one of the highlights of the film, and delivered that scene beautifully. He was a good choice. Mila Kunis is an actress I really like, but I just couldn't get into her character here. She was bland and totally forgettable. Kunis does a decent job, but she was saddled with a very weak character. That really hurt the film.

I loved Seth MacFarlane as Ted's voice. He has such a distinct, incredible voice, and it was perfect as this foul-mouthed teddy bear. While his voice does occasionally feel a little too "Family Guy"ish, I laughed out loud when he acknowledged this in the film during one of those wink-wink moments. His voice is incredible, and he did fantastic work bringing Ted to life.

The supporting cast was pretty good. I laughed quite a bit at Giovanni Ribisi. His dance moves in particular were so weird and so awkward. I really enjoyed his performance here. I'm a huge fan of Joel McHale, but it is frustrating that he always plays these awful, unlikable characters. I will say that he had one of the most unexpected hilarious moments in the film (right after the Norah Jones concert), which made me laugh out loud.

While I really liked this movie, I expected it to be funnier. There were hilarious moments, but not nearly enough. It's hard not to put the bar too high for this film, but expectations were quite elevated. We have to keep in mind that this is Seth MacFarlane's feature film directorial debut. The guy has some experience behind the camera, but not like this. That's pretty remarkable when you consider Ted is only the first film MacFarlane has directed. Based on this very strong film, I'm so looking forward to his future films.

Ted is a really, really good movie, and one of the funniest films of 2012. I really hoped this movie would be on my "Top 10" list, but it just misses out on greatness. Still, for a first-time director, this is quite close to a home run.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



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