FILM REVIEW: TED

TED (15)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane 

Director: Seth MacFarlane

Running time: 106 minutes

Released 2nd August

Released by: Universal Pictures.

Many years ago, little Johnny Bennett, a social outcast in search of a friend, wished that his toy teddy bear was real. Lo and behold - and with a little help from a magical shooting star and a sardonic voice-over from narrator Patrick Stewart - his wish is granted. Johnny and his new pal Ted promise to be thunder-buddies forever and ever and ever.

Seen as either a miracle or something demonic, Ted becomes an overnight celebrity, courted by the media and appearing on chat-shows, but although the new lifestyle takes its toll on the innocent bruin, John and Ted's friendship endures. Two decades later and we find that the media has lost interest. John (now played by Mark Wahlberg) is a slacker who is just getting by on getting by. He's in a long-term relationship with the patient but upwardly-mobile Lori (Mila Kunis) but he sees no reason to formalise their relationship with a ring. Ted still has his fuzzy butt parked on the sofa and now likes to indulge in beer, bong and fart jokes like Teddy Ruxpin on crack.

When Lori encourages John to start taking more adult responsibilities, Ted feels somewhat threatened. He likes Lori well enough, but will he and his buddy's carefree lifestyle be stymied? As John  genuinely attempts to get his life in order, he'll have to decide where his real loyalties lie... though Flash Gordon (Sam Jones reprising his cult film role) and a menacing fan (Giovanni Ribisi) may have something to say about that!

"MacFarlane is an equal opportunist: beastiality, drugs, slapstick pratfalls and workplace sexual harassment all act like explicit script punctuation, but though he'd probably deny it, there's a Disney heart beating under the pimp-master exterior. He'll make you wince and cringe, but by the end he achieves the art of also making you care..."

Director and writer Seth MacFarlane, also voicing the profane plushie, continues not so much walking a fine line as strutting it and flicking the finger to both sides. Those who liked Team America, Family Guy and American Dad will know exactly what to expect in the humour department.... often deliberately crude and rude, but not without some stylish pitching, genuinely sharp irony and a distinctly sweet scent of sentimentality that lingers on through the fart gags. There IS a genuine story of love and bromance here and one that MacFarlane pitches rather well when he decides to pull the reins in a little. Like most of his outings - and similar to contemporary Kevin Smith - he sometimes goes too far, acting like a school-kid who has just found a rude word in the dictionary and intends to say it as often as possible unless it go out of fashion, but there are enough self-deprecating and knowing pop culture laughs to balance out the deliberate cringes.  MacFarlane is an equal opportunist:  beastiality, drugs, slapstick pratfalls and workplace sexual harassment all act like explicit script punctuation, but though he'd probably deny it there's a Disney heart beating under the pimp-master exterior. He'll make you wince and cringe, but by the end he achieves the art of also making you care.

Like the character of Ted himself, this is a film that never means to truly offend, but is more concerned with tweaking your nose, embracing self-indulgence and to heck with the consequences. Like a teenager it rebels at anything you have, striving to push boundaries and find its identity, sometimes stumbling in the process, sometimes being refreshingly unfettered by the pressures of political correctness.  Ted's description of his post-fame life being "...like the cast of Diffrent Strokes, well... the ones that lived..." pitches the obtuse attitude perfectly as it seeks to move to the beat of its own drum.

Ted himself is an undeniable, technological marvel. This is a pitch-perfect blending of completely believable CGI and carefully placed animatronics and it would take a hard soul not to find the foul-mouthed miscreant convincing as a standalone creature, whatever your view of the movie vehicle itself.

An adult fairy-tale about not wanting to grow up, TED is one of those films which will fall into the love-it-or-loathe-it category. Know the creator's pedigree and you'll probably find this to be a superior entry in MacFarlane's catalogue of nose-tweaking, ego-puncturing fun (Sam Jones, Tom Skerritt and Ryan Reynolds happy to send themselves up for a good cause). Wahlberg  - one of the industry's most versatile actors - has great fun in a role that could have been less sympathetic in lesser hands and Kunis makes sure she's more than just a foil for the punchlines.

Grin and bear it. This is a distinctly dirty and pleasurable dirty pleasure....

4/5