if children's films grew up - in a word, hilarious!

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2012)

In a word, hilarious. Saw this courtesy of work pal at a free screening, and really enjoyed it. Seth MacFarlane was the voice of the bear and brought his own brand of irreverent close to the bone bawdy and profane humour to the shana punim of Ted. Laugh out loud, this is primarily a boy's film (what's the male version of chick flick? actually don't answer that...) with lots of 80s and 90s references, and despite the teddy bear not at all suitable for children. My husband and I seemed to be the only ones in the cinema apparently to get the paraphrase of "Stay Gold Ponyboy" but the rest were generally appreciated. A terrifyingly genius turn by Giovanni Ribisi with a Tiffany obsession ("I think we're alone now") gave the film a dark twist and there were loads of other cameo type appearances Patrick Warburton and uncredited Ryan Reynolds playing scarily believable gay couple, Patrick Stewart as narrator and Norah Jones, Tom Skerritt and Flash Gordon, Sam J Jones. Shockingly gross at times, but also with a good deal of heart to make the fantasy (superb SFX) of the living toy relevant, with a surprisingly welcome Hollywood ending that wasn't too schloky. Wahlberg and Kunis were cute and the acting by Wahlberg opposite Ted was brilliant- especially the fight scene. Watch it and weep, with laughter!!