Chock full of laughs

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2012)

Not since last year's THE FAMILY TREE has a comedy kept me laughing from beginning to end. TED does just that. I laughed loud and hard during Seth MacFarlane's directorial debut. TED is far and away the funniest movie I've seen this year. It's nasty, irreverent, unexpected and laugh out loud funny.
MacFarlane is best known for his impertinent, sometimes sacrilegious animated "Family Guy" cartoon series. He utilizes the same approach in TED. MacFarlane leaves no one or no topic unskewered. Jews, gays, Boston girls, drug users, grocer store managers, car rental businesses, liberals, conservatives, Christians, Indians, Muslims (especially Muslims), all feel Seth's wrath. A criticism against MacFarlane is his penchant for over playing the liberal and gay agenda. His characterization of Stewie on "Family Guy" was receiving extremely poor reactions from the fan base and an alteration, though subtle, was instituted. MacFarlane's tone and attitude have mellowed slightly and more conservative mores are appearing in his scripts. Maybe this is because he's older and wiser, and maybe it's because he's been hanging around with talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. Who knows? The bottom line is the comedy is an equal opportunity laugh fest. The nefarious doper-slacker comedians can and should learn well from MacFarlane; you can make a funny movie with more than three bathroom humor gags repeated for 90 minutes.
John Bennett, played by Mark Wahlberg, is the kid no one likes. The opening sequence sets his pathetic scenario during the annual beating of the neighborhood Jewish kid at Christmas time. Wahlberg is solid in this role. After a series of yo-yo like performances in action flicks, he dives into this part with relish. I've been rather critical of Marky Mark of late, but he's climbed up the ladder of impressiveness with his performance in TED.
Mila Kunis is Lori Collins, John's girlfriend. She is rather nondescript in the part, but with her exotic looks, all she really has to do is make love to the camera with her deep swimming pool eyes. Of course, MacFarlane knows this well and doesn't waste time in mocking her appearance in the guise of sleaze ball boss Rex, played by Joel McHale ("you have that smoky, Baltic something lookÂ…?") In addition to an extended cameo by McHale, Ryan Reynolds, Sam Jones and the rest of the voice cast from "Family Guy" all appear in TED. The only one missing is Jennifer Tilly. It's a shame; she would have fit nicely into this flick.
MacFarlane is the voice for TED. Admittedly, there are times when he sounds too much like Peter Griffith, but most of the time the laughs compensate. The effects for TED are top notch. Credit Production Designer Stephen Lineweaver and Special Effects Supervisor Adam Bellao and his crew for bringing a teddy bear to life. It's a solid blend of puppetry and animation.
KEY SCENES TO LOOK FOR: 1. THE HOTEL FIGHT SCENE 2. MEETING SAM JONES (FLASH) 3. NORA JONE'S DRESSING ROOM
There are numerous one-liners in TED. Like the old Peter Sellers comedies, they are so plentiful you will miss many of them while you are laughing at the initial one. This is a good thing, because it will enable you to pick up something new through repeated viewings.
If I have one complaint, it's probably the pervasive drug use. It's the only running gag McFarland overplays. Perhaps if dopers weren't causing so much havoc in schools, in neighborhoods and on roadways they would be more amusing. Now, however, they are just wretched.
Still, the concept of a young boys wish for his teddy bear to be real presents a plethora of mirth-provoking plights, and MacFarlane pokes most of them. As narrator Patrick Stewart says: "There is nothing on Earth more powerful than a little boy's wish on Christmas Eve, except the Apache helicopter..."
THE RATING FOR TED = B