Comedy
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth McFarlane, Mila
Kunis, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Stewart & Ryan Reynolds.
Running Time: 106 mins. approx.
Seen At: Didsbury.
On: Monday, 13th August, 2013.
I confess,
I’ve never actually seen Family Guy. Based
on Ted’s humour though, tonally at
least, the two probably aren’t dissimilar. It’s directed by the show’s creator,
the multi-talented talented Seth McFarlane, who also voices the title teddy.
Mark
Wahlberg, an actually now so associated with serious, conflicted anti-heroes,
usually cops are redemptive troubled souls, now turns excellently to gross-out
comedy in the Farrelly Brothers mould: fans of Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary and Me, Myself & Irene will know exactly
how sharp the satirical edge will be.
Narrated by
the dulcet tones of Patrick Stewart, we see that John has the Christmas present
of all, his own Teddy Bear and friend for life. In a very smart opening
montage, eagle-eyed movie-fans will delight in references to their very
cinematic appreciations, from queuing up in costume for The Phantom Menace, to a Raiders
Of The Lost Ark poster on John’s bedroom wall. One particularly distinguishing feature (batteries not included*),
is that fact that Ted can talk – and not just when you squeeze his paw. Rest
assured though, the grown-up John and his deceptively cute-looking counterpart
are suitably foul-mouthed, throwing parties of a vastly more alcohol-fuelled, adult
persuasion. At one point, Ted introduces four young girls to an incredulous
John and his girlfriend (Mila Kunis): ‘This
is Angelique, Heavenly, Shareene and Sauvignon
Blanc!’.
The bar of
what is deemed acceptable taste, doesn’t exist anymore. It seems literally that
any lurid linguistic observation or highly puerile sexual reference can double
as hilarity. It’s not that it isn’t funny – it is hilarious, but only at the expense of being shocking first, in
an abundance of ‘How did they get away with that?’ - induced gasps from ours
and plenty more a screening, which immediately
dilutes its comedic impact. Consequently, this means that the imminent sequel,
perhaps won’t hold onto novelty for very long. Where McFarlane has succeeded
far better, is in zeitgeist, and parody. There are a great many extremely
well-judged referential gems hidden throughout, from an ongoing motif of a
shared fascination with eighties’ nostalgia (the second Indiana Jones reference involves Ted’s torn
ear and a door left ajar, and their shared love of Flash Gordon leads to a Sam Jones cameo).
Lines of
dialogue like ‘That’s my bad I was
sending a tweet’, after bumping into another car, or: ‘Back off Susan Boyle!’ – Ted’s inevitable fame leads to kidnap from
a scarily convincing Giovanni Ribisi as the father of an Omen-esque son - are surefire crowd-pleasers with a welcome absence
of innuendo.
It’s easy to
overlook the technical skill of what’s been achieved through seamless CGI to
create Ted. Instinctively, he can accomplish any action, without the audience
ever knowingly marveling, very much in the style of what Robert Zemeckis achieved
with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Death
Becomes Her, and then much later, employing motion-capture with The Polar Express.
Never in the
best of tastes, but it is undeniably, very funny.
Rating: * * *
