It’s not particularly unusual for films to share titles but they usually have at least a few years between them. I saw this the other day and had to take a picture. 2 films with basically the same title showing in the same cinema at the same time. Even better, one is an adult comedy and the other a kid’s animation.
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane moves into live-action movies with the story of a young boy whose wish that his teddy bear was real comes true. Except the boy is now in his thirties and the bear, who’s grown up with him, is still going strong.
The comedy is very much in the same vein as ‘Family Guy’, though without the restrictions of US network TV, with many crude jokes and references to often dated pop culture items (‘Flash Gordon’ gets numerous mentions.) This line does fall flat occasionally though, such as when ‘Ted’ protests that he doesn’t sound like Peter Griffin.
Mark Wahlberg gamely plays against type as the naïve protagonist, adding something of a childlike quality to him, but all the best lines belong to Ted himself, his exchanges with his boss being a particular highlight. Family Guy alumnus Mila Kunis unfortunately makes little impression as Wahlberg’s suffering but spiritless girlfriend.
It’s a reasonably good premise for a comedy, but really, there’s only so much humour one can get out of a drug-addled, foul mouthed, slacker teddy bear and while ‘Ted’ does get a lot out of it, the film can’t keep up the quality throughout, and in its latter half it starts to run out of steam.
I also had to mention the fact that, in its closing moments, it makes a particular point of insulting ‘Superman Returns’, which, while considered a disappointment by many, is probably still a better film than ‘Ted’ is.
2.5/5
White on Film 