Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the animated comedy show Family Guy, directs his first full-length movie starring Mark Walberg, Mila Kunis, and of course, himself as the voice of Ted, the teddy bear. MacFarlane, through the show Family Guy, created an impressively unique blend of comedy for himself that has proven to strike a chord with the American audience. With Ted, he hopes to strike that same chord with a major motion picture.
Plot:
John Bennett (Walberg) made a wish that his newly acquired teddy bear, creatively named Ted, would come to life. Well, it did. Fast forward 20 years, and John and Ted are still the best of friends. But when that friendship is tested by John's girlfriend Lori (Kunis), John has to act before both Ted and Lori lose faith in him.
My Thoughts:
It was quite easy to predict that Ted would watch like a Family Guy episode. What with MacFarlane directing, writing, and voicing, plus bringing along Mila Kunis, (who has been the voice of a lead character on Family guy for over 10 years) and Jessica Barth, (another voice on Family Guy), there wasn't much else to think.
I was right. It feels exactly like a family guy episode, all the way down to the random flashbacks and constant jokes at other random celebrities' expenses. There are countless verbal jabs (jokes?) that, while downright disrespectful at times and insulting at the best of times, are still hilarious. MacFarlane has way too much fun making fun of others, but at least he does it incredibly well in both Family Guy and here in Ted. Many of the jokes written in the script had me crying with laughter.
But that's when MacFarlane's at his best. When he loses his unique comedic touch, he resorts to the same raunchy, crass, sexual, uncreative "humor" that we've already seen in a million other R rated comedies. It's really not that funny to see how many ways you can go about saying something sexual in a perverted way or how many ways you can phrase "let's smoke weed" or "let's get wasted." Unfortunately, Ted is smothered in this type of perverted humor that's designed to make the audience gasp "I can't believe he just said that!" and then, consequently, laugh away the shock and call it humor.
The storyline is blatantly cliche, which I actually applaud. It's very much obvious that MacFarlane did this on purpose, maybe even to make fun of that style of movie. The music score of the movie is ridiculous and yet, well done, almost like you're watching the finale of the most dramatic, crappy soap opera on tv. And finally, the acting performances of Mila Kunis and Mark Walberg were pretty good. I can't praise their roles too highly because they were very simple roles to act, but at least neither of them were poor performances.
All of this movie is designed to never let the audience stop laughing. But I did stop. A lot. I don't laugh at vulgar, crass lines simply because that's what they are, and there's a ton of those moments in Ted. The times when Ted shines are the moments when MacFarlane (wisely) relies on his well-used, but still hilarious blend of comedy. When it falls short, is when he tries anything else.
My Thoughts:
It was quite easy to predict that Ted would watch like a Family Guy episode. What with MacFarlane directing, writing, and voicing, plus bringing along Mila Kunis, (who has been the voice of a lead character on Family guy for over 10 years) and Jessica Barth, (another voice on Family Guy), there wasn't much else to think.
I was right. It feels exactly like a family guy episode, all the way down to the random flashbacks and constant jokes at other random celebrities' expenses. There are countless verbal jabs (jokes?) that, while downright disrespectful at times and insulting at the best of times, are still hilarious. MacFarlane has way too much fun making fun of others, but at least he does it incredibly well in both Family Guy and here in Ted. Many of the jokes written in the script had me crying with laughter.
But that's when MacFarlane's at his best. When he loses his unique comedic touch, he resorts to the same raunchy, crass, sexual, uncreative "humor" that we've already seen in a million other R rated comedies. It's really not that funny to see how many ways you can go about saying something sexual in a perverted way or how many ways you can phrase "let's smoke weed" or "let's get wasted." Unfortunately, Ted is smothered in this type of perverted humor that's designed to make the audience gasp "I can't believe he just said that!" and then, consequently, laugh away the shock and call it humor.
The storyline is blatantly cliche, which I actually applaud. It's very much obvious that MacFarlane did this on purpose, maybe even to make fun of that style of movie. The music score of the movie is ridiculous and yet, well done, almost like you're watching the finale of the most dramatic, crappy soap opera on tv. And finally, the acting performances of Mila Kunis and Mark Walberg were pretty good. I can't praise their roles too highly because they were very simple roles to act, but at least neither of them were poor performances.
All of this movie is designed to never let the audience stop laughing. But I did stop. A lot. I don't laugh at vulgar, crass lines simply because that's what they are, and there's a ton of those moments in Ted. The times when Ted shines are the moments when MacFarlane (wisely) relies on his well-used, but still hilarious blend of comedy. When it falls short, is when he tries anything else.
Rating: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment