Crude crowd-pleaser.

Rating: Null/10 (29 June 2012)

From the creator of Family Guy comes one of the crudest comedies of the year, but not necessarily the funniest. When bullied kid John Bennett wishes his teddy bear would come to life, it does, and subsequently becomes a celebrity in the process. Three decades on, Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane himself) is a pot-smoking, foul-mouthed wash-up who keeps the now 35 year old John (a very game Mark Whalberg) from growing up, much to the chagrin of extremely patient girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis). The jokes come thick and fast and when they score, they really score; however there are a few clunkers present too. For every side-splitting sexual innuendo gag at the local supermarket, a can't-believe-that-just-happened knockout of a kid or a hilarious Ryan Reynolds cameo, there is an unfunny 'thunder song', a lame fight with an Asian man or a misguided fart joke right around the corner. Having said that, a magical teddy swearing like a trooper is essentially always comedy gold and MacFarlane rides the wave as much as possible – even if his very recognisable voice is a slight distraction, as one drunken in-joke slyly acknowledges – delivering a crowd-pleaser that will surely strike big at the box office.