Ted is funny and that's about all it wants to be

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2012)

"Seth MacFarlene is a lover of old films and with this very modern style comedy he has tried to make references to old movies and they go well with this tale of comedy in our modern times"
The story for this film simply can only be described as impossible. The film centre's around John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) who when he was eight had a magical wish that brought his teddy bear to life. Cut 27 years later John is in a relationship with Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) but he still is best friends with Ted (Seth MacFarlene) even though Lori feels that John should ditch Ted and finally grow up. During this time we see Ted's fame has passed and he gets stoned a lot with John but also there are some other weird characters in the story that do some strange things.
The film is like an extended version of the comedy styling Seth's TV shows are known for which did make me laugh at times but other times the comedy seemed to out there for me laugh along with which is usually what happens when I watch Seth's shows. Also I like how the film even with it's real teddy bear did not skip over that detail by making the whole world accept him but they allowed him to be famous which was a smart idea to make this film seem more real. The film did contain to many scenes that were not needed in the end because most of those scenes were just there for comedy and could have been cut to make the film move better. Also continuing plots just seemed to be done for comedic effect and did not translate well to a film that does not want to seem overly long.
Mark Wahlberg plays the older version of John and something I did not like about his performance was his accent maybe because I did not feel it was as believable as his previous attempts of the accent. Also Mark for me does not have screen charisma that wants me to care for his performance which distracts me from the story of the film. Seth MacFarlene is doing the voice-over for the teddy bear and sure he does have some funny moments but I was distracted by mostly everything he said because the voice he used was similar to the voice of Peter Griffin on Family Guy (which they also make a joke of in the film). Mila Kunis who I have liked in previous film just was given nothing to do except be the complaining girlfriend which I think she deserves more then that because unlike the other main actors she actually has some talent. The rest of the cast were forgettable supporting roles which just did not work for me.
The film was funny but unlike other comedies done in this style the characters in this film are not as well written that I actually feel for them when things happen to them. I can see why some jokes were included but I felt a lot of them could have been cut and small cameos did not have to be the film because they were just there to try shock the audience.
MOVIE GRADE: C- (MVP: Seth MacFarlene)