TED
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane (voice)
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Reviewed by Danielle Muir

[rating:4/5]

The trailer for Ted looked horrific.  I had people ask me whether it was a joke, to which I hesitantly replied that I believed it was actually a thing.

All little John (Wahlberg) ever wanted as a young boy was a friendly companion to which he could share his time, thoughts and intense fear of thunder.  But, one magical Christmas changes everything – when John is gifted an oversized teddy bear, wishes for him to be ‘real’ and voila!  An instant best buddy is born.

Fast track about 10 years into the future – John’s is in a loving long term relationship with Lori (Kunis), stuck in a job he can’t stand, and spends most of his time getting baked with Ted whilst watching old school Flash Gordon.  Lori is fed up with having a washed-up celebrity stuffed animal drinking her beer and preventing her man from growing up – so she issues an ultimatum.  It’s either her, or the bear.

I went into the cinema hoping for hilarity, but expecting a trainwreck.  And hilarity is what ensued.

There’s no shortage of vulgar humour, but I would liken it to my other favourite comedy of the year thus far – 21 Jump Street.  It’s not simply ‘show someone naked – THAT will make the people laugh’ type humour that is all to frequent these days.  The jokes are unexpected, the delivery perfect and the boundaries pushed (with good material).

The voice Seth MacFarlane uses for Ted is the same as Peter Griffin.  There’s no real variation.  It’s even directly referenced at one point.  But the jokes are so well delivered and plain old funny that it doesn’t matter – I’m sure some avid Family Guy fans would probably get a kick out of it.

Mark Wahlberg is a fantastic comic actor.  With his New Yorker accent, expressive features and a peculiar child-like innocence, he has the ability to produce swoons, tears and laughter.  Thank god in this case it’s mostly laughter.  Coupled with the small packet of dynamite that is Mila Kunis, they have great comedic chemistry – especially due to the fact that Lori definitely wears the pants.

This is the kind of comedy that reduced me, and the rest of the cinema, to tears of intense laughter, and I will be partying with Ted at least once more when it is released.

P.S. A fantastic cameo this way comes.