Not the comedy I was hoping for

Rating: 6/10 (28 September 2012)

¨No matter how big a splash you make in this world whether you're Corey Feldman, Frankie Muniz, Justin Bieber or a talking teddy bear, eventually, nobody cares.¨
Since 1999 Seth MacFarlane has made a name for himself in television thanks to the success of Family Guy. He's also the man responsible for other successful animated series such as American Dad and The Cleveland Show. He's not only the creator of these shows, he also voices many of the characters as well. In his first venture into live action film he also voices the star of the movie: Ted, a teddy bear that magically comes to life after a lonely boy makes a wish. Ted is an R-rated comedy due to the fact that he happens to be very vulgar and getting stoned all the time. The film has had huge box office success in the United Stated and I was expecting Ted to be hilarious, but I guess my expectations were a little too high because I wasn't blown away by this movie. There were some funny scenes, but for the most part the film felt like an average comedy and it wasn't what I was hoping for. 2012 has failed to deliver a successful comedy, and for now 21 Jump Street reigns as the best one in my opinion. Ted is full of irreverent humor, but it's repetitive and you have the usual sexual, drug, and poop jokes. I couldn't find much originality to it, but I do have to say some of the scenes did work thanks to Ted and his best friend played by Mark Wahlberg, whom I've always said is great in comedies. This is a pretty formulaic buddy comedy where you have the typical two slacker best friends and a girl who gets in the way of their friendship and wants them to mature. The only difference is that this time around one of them is a talking teddy bear.
The film begins with a narration (voiced by Patrick Stewart) about the story of lonely boy who gets his wish one Christmas morning when he asks for his teddy bear to become his best friend. When the teddy comes to life, John Bennett (played by Mark Wahlberg, and the younger version played by Bretton Manley) discovers that he has found his best friend who he names Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane). Ted becomes an instant celebrity as he is all over the news and is invited to all kind of talk shows. Ted changes young John's life for the better. The film then jumps to the present day where both have grown into adults. John is now 35 and has a healthy relationship with Lori (Mila Kunis). They've been dating for four years now. Ted is still living with John and has also grown up in the same way that his human buddy did. John and Ted like to spend time getting high together and talking about girls, drugs, and Flash Gordon. Everything seems to be going well for the trio until Lori gives John an ultimatum. It's Ted or her. Lori realizes that Ted is keeping John from realizing his full potential since they're always getting stoned and John is always late to work. John realizes that he has to make an important decision if he wants to save his relationship with Lori and the movie moves along from here.
One of the things the film explores well is the transition from child to adulthood. We don't only see John grow up, but his teddy bear as well. Now being an adult doesn't mean you're mature and John and Ted are proof of that. They are irresponsible and practically only care about getting high all the time. They both are very nice people, but really immature. That's what drives Lori crazy, but the good thing about Ted is that these characters aren't stereotypical. Lori isn't a mean person who wants to separate the two best friends, but rather wants them to take responsibilities as adults. Ted also has character development and despite the fact that he's very inappropriate he also has a big heart and wished the best fro John and Lori. This isn't your typical face off between best friend and girlfriend. I was pleased with that aspect of the film. Another thing that worked really well for me in this movie was all the references to different films (especially Flash Gordon and Top Gun) and jokes about them. As a film lover you always enjoy those small references and gags. Some of the cameos were also pretty funny and highlights of the film. What I didn't like as much was the fact that some of the sexual and drug humor got a little bit repetitive and old. There were also several poop and fart jokes which are always a little repetitive in these buddy comedies. Ted is still a funny film, but just not the hilarious movie I was hoping for.
http://estebueno10.blogspot.com