As a passionate hater of all things Family Guy, Ted sounded like a horrible idea, even with the impressive cast it Seth MacFarlane assembled. The idea of a animated teddy bear cursing, doing drugs, and having sex with trashy girls didn't sound appealing at all. It just sounded annoying. I was wrong. Ted is a wonderful comedy, one that manages to keep you laughing the whole way through and manages to have some genuine heart shine through as well.
Ask anyone, it takes a lot for me to get passionate about a comedy. Maybe I'm just hard to please, but films like The Hangover or virtually anything starring Adam Sandler rank among some of the worst movies I've seen. Ted is a welcome exception to that tradition, thanks, in part, to MacFarlane's wonderful script. Ted never takes its ridiculous premise too seriously, but develops it well enough to make it more interesting than you'd expect. And, while the film certainly wears it's R rating on it's sleeve, the tone is surprisingly sweet, almost like a grown up version of the Tom Hank's classic Big. Along with all the pot smoking and sex jokes, audiences see a surprisingly tender romance, just the right amount of quirk, dark humor, self awareness and, most importantly, a completely realistic and compelling relationship between Ted and John.
That takes me to the acting in the film, which is uniformly solid. Mark Wahlberg is a decidedly hit or miss actor. He either turns in a wonderful performance (The Departed), is a great film's weakest link (Boogie Nights) or just all sorts of terrible (Fear, Planet of the Apes, Rock Star). His performance in Ted turns out to be one of his best. The entire film relies on his relationship with Ted, requiring Wahlberg to convincingly share the scene with a computer generated teddy bear. That's something very few actors can pull off, but Wahlberg does the job nicely, toning down his movie star nature to play a relatable man-child the audience can root for, even when he's doing wrong. That being said, it's MacFarlane who steals the show. It may only be his voice in the film, but that's not to say that he isn't the best thing about the film. His characterization of Ted is so well thought out, entirely convincing and, most importantly, hilarious. As for the supporting cast, virtually everybody does a good job, even if important characters like Mila Kunis don't have too much to do.
Ted, a film I couldn't care less about prior to seeing it, has become one of my favorite films of the year and one of the few films I'd pay to see in theaters for a second time. It's wonderful entertainment, well made, and truly hilarious. If you don't mind some very crude humor, give it a try, you won't be sorry.
OVERALL GRADE A-
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