When a friendless 8-year-old boy wishes his newly acquired teddy bear could have the ability to talk and be his friend forever, he probably didn’t think about the possible consequences of his actions. Of course, who would think such a wish would (or could) come true? For John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), that situation is all too real as he is now 35 years old, working a dead-end job, and living with Ted, his walking, talking, bong-smoking teddy bear.
John also has a girlfriend, Lori (Mila Kunis,) and she’s put up with this unusual arrangement for the last four years. However, she’s beginning to hope that John would spend less time getting stoned with the aforementioned teddy bear and more time attempting to be a responsible adult. She also wouldn’t mind if he asked her to marry him.
Ted, the new film from Seth MacFarlane, serves up humor in much the same way as MacFarlane’s best-known project, the animated Fox series, Family Guy. Using a myriad of TV, movie, and media references, along with some borderline obscene visual gags, Ted makes full use of its R-rating but still manages to be genuinely funny in the process.
Mark Wahlberg is usually at his best playing dopey lunkheads and that’s exactly the role he plays here. Mila Kunis looks appropriately out of John’s league as Lori and acts as one might expect a woman in her situation to act but she’s not given much else to do.
The bulk of Ted‘s humor relies on MacFarlane’s usual bag of tricks which is somewhat deeper and dirtier without the Fox Network Standards and Practices Department overseeing the script. So, when the jokes begin to stray into the arena of bodily fluids and fecal matter, it’s not that surprising. Unless, of course, you’ve never seen an episode of Family Guy. In the context of what could easily be a typical romantic comedy — minus the magical teddy bear — the wildly blue humor is a welcome relief from the formula.
Where Ted, the film, goes off the rails a bit is the introduction of a villainous character (Giovanni Ribisi) who’s obsessed with Ted. Throwing in a kidnapping subplot at approximately the time the novelty of a smutty teddy bear starts to wane just feels like an unnecessary plot device rather than a good source of comedy.
As it stands, Ted is a raunchy, trashy good time that has just a little too much stuffing.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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