Before going into more critic the plot needs to be stated. A teddy bear is brought to life by a boy's wish for his best friend to be real. "Teddy" (voiced by Seth Macfarlane) becomes a overnight hit and gets worldwide coverage as a truly magical event. However 27 years later and now going by Ted, the stuffed animal is all but forgotten about or people just don't care anymore. Ted now lives with his childhood best friend so memorably named John (Mark Wahlberg) in a state of childhood arrested development. They smoke weed daily and watch Flash Gordon re-runs whenever possible. John's girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis) isn't pleased with this lack of maturing in John and motions him in a direction of adulthood away from Ted. Also in the movie is Joel Mchale playing Lori's boss, a one dimensional character that only wants to sleep with her, and Giovani Ribisi playing a man who wants Ted for his own. To the film's credit this may be the creepiest Ribisi character out there (tremendous praise for the actor).
Ted might just be the most pop culture littered movie of all time. Nearly every joke is similar to Macfarlane's show in the "remember that event (the audience then laughs cause they got the reference)". The jokes aren't bad in moderations but every minute for 115 is too much. Knowing Macfarlane's style this sort of humor was expected but that doesn't make it a good movie, it can get laughs but still be poor comedy. In this reference humor there are "jokes"that are only funny because a talking animated teddy bear is saying them. Ten seconds of a an actual person "singing like people from the 90s" seems cringe worthy, but Ted makes it somewhat appealing. So is this good humor or something looking for as many simple laughs as possible?
On this topic of comedy in Ted it's disturbing the lack of it at times. These times I'm referring to is the film's treatment of the idea of woman and comedy. As the film progressed I felt bad for Mila Kunis. Everyone knows she can be funny (That 70's Show, Friends With Benefits) or give a good performance (Black Swan) but here she is here to play the role of John's girlfriend with maybe two meager offerings of jokes. Women in Ted are here to act trashy and look pretty, not to tell an actual joke.
Hopefully and quite possibly Ted will be forgotten about in a decade. It's humor is based entirely on references and quick jokes. Not a hint of intelligence is to be seen here. Comedy and intelligence don't have to be mutually exclusive things. It won't be remembered as defining classics like Caddyshack, Animal House, or any Monty Python film. Those movies stand up for future generations and are still easily accessible. Ted seems like a movie that can be looked at years from now and have people asking "Who is Taylor Lautner, Justin Bieber and Susan Boyle?". Maybe much like Flash Gordon, the show John and Ted so love, it most likely will have no appeal to people introduced to it years from now. Still Ted gets some laughs, the audience I watched the film with laughed often. Giovanni Ribisi's scenes, a party a Ted's place and Mark Wahlberg's willingness to through his all into the movie make it still somewhat entertaining. In the end though Ted predictable, a bit long, a decent amount of laughs, not to many clever jokes. and nothing to but a movie for the here and now.
Note: I don't due "the recommendations" section any more but for this I'll make an exception cause it makes a lot of sense. Do you want to watch an 115 minute long episode of later season Family Guy? If yes then go for it, you'll like it better than I probably did. If not you didn't miss a thing.
** out of ****
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