As promised, the second comedy from the
last cinema trip will be discussed in today's post. Funnily enough,
this one is from the other side of the comedy spectrum, with my last
post being on The Three Stooges, who rely on physical comedy and
puns. This is more on the stoner/gross-out/controversial statement
side. I am of course talking about Seth Macfarlane's directorial
debut, Ted.
John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) lives with
his best friend, a walking, talking teddy bear named Ted (voiced by
Seth Macfarlane), the result of a childhood wish come true. But now
John thinks it's time to grow up a little and stop getting high with
his teddy bear (I never thought I'd write that sentence), especially
as he plans to propose to his girlfriend of four years, Lori (Mila
Kunis).
Whether or not you should see this film
depends on the answer to this question: do you enjoy Seth
Macfarlane's work, Family Guy in particular? If you answered no, you
probably will not like this. So, you can stop reading now if you
like.
If you answered yes, here's a follow-up
question: do you still enjoy Family Guy regardless of what it throws
at you? Or do you keep watching in the hopes that it will reach the
highs the show once had, while still thinking it's not so bad? If
your answer is the former, go right ahead, don't let me stop you.
You'll probably love it.
If you answered with the latter, you're
probably in the same boat as me. While I still enjoy the show, I
admit that the quality has slipped. And Ted shares some of its
problems.
One of the biggest shared between the
two is the random racist remarks. On Family Guy, it's partially less
offensive if they come from Peter Griffin, because he's a colossal
idiot. But here... Seth, dude, I think you have a problem. What
exactly do you have against the Jewish and Muslim communities? The
standard “I attack everybody” clause will only get you so far,
and with all the digs FG takes at the expense of the Jewish, I have
to wonder what exactly goes on in the writer's room. Yes, Seth may
not write every little word in every script but as the creator of the
show, he has final approval on anything to be put to air, and it's
even worse here since he has that much more freedom. Stuff like
“Thank you for 9/11” isn't being edgy, it's just... dark.
The other big problem it shares with
Family Guy is the cheesy, happy ending when contrasted with said
humor. I won't spoil it, even though there's not much to spoil, but
the ending takes it self so seriously, it's almost like Seth is
saying “OK, we had our fun, but cut the crap, I wanna be taken
seriously for a moment”. Considering we had a sequence in which a
teddy bear comes onto a co-worker using groceries to simulate what he
wants to do to her, and her to him, you're asking for a bit much.
Hell, if it had ended the way I wanted it to, it would have been a
great metaphor for growing up, the whole “it's time to put away
childish things” concept.
Couple of minor gripes, too: the
supporting cast is next to useless, serving only for random jokes or
subplots that go nowhere (Patrick Warburton plays a guy who hasn't
come to terms with his homosexuality. That's the only thing we really
learn about him, it keeps being brought up, and it doesn't really go
anywhere). Hell, one of John's co-workers at the car rental, I don't
even know her name. She gets one big scene with John, only to pretty
much disappear and all we know about her is that she had a boyfriend
who was deported to Iran. Besides setting up a sex joke, why did we
need her?
Also, Giovanni Ribisi is brought in to
play the closest thing to an antagonist, a creep with a loser son who
wants Ted so that his son will have a playmate. Well, the movie kind
of forgets about them for a while, only to bring them back for the
third act to inject some drama into things. Yeah, not really sure we
needed that (though seeing that annoying kid get punched in the face
was one of the highlights of the movie).
Despite all of that, I did enjoy the
movie. Mark Wahlberg's character was a fairly decent and stand-up
guy, who did acknowledge he had problems he needed to work on, and
even admitted before almost anyone else that he needed to grow up a
little. He's self-aware, honest and funny.
Also, Mila Kunis. I don't think I need
to elaborate, but I will slightly. Mila Kunis is just awesome. She
can dish out crude humor as well as the boys, and is one of the most
likeable characters in this movie. Is there anyone alive who doesn't
love Mila Kunis? Wait, don't answer, I don't want to know.
Also, Patrick Stewart as the narrator
garners quite a few laughs, probably because he says the silliest
things in the most serious voice, and is fully into it (I love the
bit at the start, when he says that the only thing more powerful than
a child's wish was a certain type of helicopter, then describes it in
great detail.
And the premise itself seems like one
of those “Oh why has no one thought of this before?” kind of
deals and for the most part, it carries the premise throughout. It
explores the logical ramifications of “What if your childhood toy
that came to life was suddenly not what you wanted when you grew
up?”, though I have to wonder if Ted is functionally immortal.
Like, besides the obvious like fire and being ripped to shreds, will
he live forever? That's kind of a scary thought. Especially since he
kind of ages (well, his voice does anyway), so will his body stay the
same but his mind age naturally? Will he become senile and stay that
way for eons?
To summarize: shares some of Family
Guy's weaknesses, which can be off-putting, but it's not without
things to like. Not an instant comedy classic but it does the job.
3/5
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