Ted

Universal

Rated R

Running time: 106 Minutes



Click below to watch the Ted trailer.



In Universal Pictures Ted, Mark Wahlberg's relationship with Mina Kulis is threateaned by his childhood relationship - with his Teddy Bear Ted, Seth MacFarlane.

This is the feature-length directorial debut of MacFarlane, who also wrote and produced Ted as well as the movie being the first live-action project for MacFarlane. MacFarlane does the voice-over for the grown-up Ted. After lonely child Bretton Manley wishes for his teddy bear to be a real-life friend, Teddy Zane Cowans becomes a real-life bear and soon becomes a celebrity. The movie then focuses on the present day, where Wahlberg and Ted/MacFarlane are now grown up - but very immature adults, even if they do have jobs. How Mila Kunis spent four years with Wahlberg and Ted/MacFarlane is a mystery to me. I could have accepted Kunis being with Wahlberg for four months instead, as in the movie Kunis finally has had enough of Wahlberg's and Ted/MacFarlane's relationship and immaturity.

While Ted is supposed to be a raunchy comedy, I found the movie uneven as half the time the movie seemed like a serious relationship drama. A chick flick. The movie is basically a dramatic version of the movie Paul, when I would have preferred Paul meets Superbad. I think part of the problem is that half of the characters were serious characters instead of off-the-wall characters which would have made the movie much funnier, much like the off-the-wall characters that were in the movie Horrible Bosses. There was a scene that was a takeoff of a scene in Airplane!, which I think would have made the movie much funnier if the entire movie was made like that - especially with the idea of a walking, talking, living teddy bear running around. Having Ted being a raunchy teddy bear was not enough, especially since in the film Ted is now a has-been 1980's celebrity and is an accepted member of society instead of some mythical character suddenly come to life. The movie opens with basically a 1950's feel with Wahlberg's childhood home, but then grows up into a raunchy film.

The 1980 film Flash Gordon was a great influence in the movie. The fact that the producers actually got Sam Jones from Flash Gordon to play himself in the movie was great. Although I prefered Jones as the kick-ass alien bounty hunter in Stargate SG-1 much more, rather than Jones portrayal as an aging actor trying to reclaim his glory as Flash Gordon in the movie. Cameos by singer Norah Jones, Tom Skerritt and archived footage of TV late-night host Johnny Carson integrated with Ted/Macfarlane was great. And an uncredited Ryan Reynolds made an impression with me. The opening and closing narration by Patrick Stewart had the right irreverance, which was first evident in the first couple of minutes of a politically incorrect statement. I just wish we got to see Wahlberg's parents Alex Borstein and Ralph Garman as characters when Manley grew up to be Wahlberg. Although I felt Manley was too old to be so excited about a stuffed bear, when Teddy became alive, I could accept Manley being excited about having a new friend.

For an R film, Giovanni Ribisi and his son Aedin Mincks were not creepily off-the-all enough for me to accept them being the movie's bad guys. They were just acceptable for a PG or PG-13 movie, but not enough for an R film. Actually having children actors in an R film, even if it is a comedy, is a little disturbing for me. Obviously, children could not see the movie - which cuts down on the box office on the family audiences that might have seen the movie. I just wonder if the child actors themselves saw the movie.

The computer graphics of Ted are very good due to MacFarlane being motion-captured. I just accepted Ted as a character, a living Teddy bear who even has sex. Ted/Macfarlane still can not run very convincingly, but the rest of the CGI and motion-capture appeared believable and was very detailed in his fur. It was cool to see the cosmic zoom from the Universal Pictures 100th Anniversary logo of Earth from space zooming down into Wahlberg's childhood neighborhood. I was surprised that various referances from several movie and TV studios were used in the movie. At first I thought that they all came from Universal as that would have been easy and cheap - until I recognized the theme from the Indiana Jones movies, and they were distributed by Paramount Studios and not Universal Pictures. Getting the rights to use all of these referances from the various studios and media would be difficult legally and expensive. For having Seth MacFarlane having the clout to get this personal project of his off the ground is incredible. For a small crowd in the theater, as the movie has been out for a few weeks already, there were quite a few laughs from the audience and I admit I laughed too - but I laughed very little as to me the movie was too much of a drama instead of a comedy.

Rated R for Language, Sexual Situations, and Drug Abuse. Running time: 106 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.