Ted (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Surprised how much I enjoyed this. It's hard to have a raunchy, wild comedy that still has a lot of heart to it. The "love story" if you will between Ted & John (as good friends) is better realized then I expected; when the jokes work, they really work. Watched it in a Regal RPX theater.. not sure what to think of that; I don't know if it's worth the higher ticket price, frankly.. (strange city this week, in Miami for a project). I will say: I do miss AMC's Cinemasuites format, where people get kicked out for whipping out phones.

 

[Patrick Sun]

In "Ted, where the premise being a lonely 8 year-old boy makes a wish that his teddy bear (newly received at Christmas) can interact with him normally as an anthropomorphic animal character could in a movie, I'm just glad there were more laughs than just from the trailers, Ted's rather acerbic wit was rather sharp, and his human buddy, John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) was a dopey, but decent guy with a girlfriend (Mila Kunis) who realizes they are coming upon relationship crossroads where Ted needs to be removed from their everyday lives if their relationship is to progress any further. That subplot is fine, but the other subplot involving some weird dude (Giovanni Ribisi) and a young boy wanting Ted for his own enjoyment wasn't quite an entertaining subplot.
But overall, when it's funny, it's funny, with some dull spots, but Ted himself made me laugh.
I give it 2.75 stars ,or a grade of B-.

 

[TravisR]

Ted is more or less a live action episode of Family Guy. Much like FG, Ted uses ancient sitcom plot elements but adds politically incorrect jokes, profanity and references to 1980's garbage to make it 'new'. In all fairness, it had some laughs in it but I'd say that only FG fans should bother with this movie.

 

[joshEH]

So, as a qualifier: Seth MacFarlane CAN be funny as hell. He just often settles for far less.
But the Cliff's Notes version of my thoughts is: That really ASTONISHINGLY ugly Asian stereotype-scene, and the third act aside, I actually kinda liked it. Live-action limitations holding MacFarlane's leash, taking away some of the freedoms he abuses on Family Guy, helps. The film does have a beating heart to it, and handles all the characters admirably, though, again, the third act robs the film of what could've been a better, deeper allegory about manchildren.
There's one absolutely bizarre, Family Guy-type cutaway that doesn't work at ALL. But in live-action, the actors really downplay all the strange pop-culture allusions and jokes. Most of the laughs are chuckle-worthy. But it's a good 60-40 split, and guys like Patrick Warburton really hit it out of the park with some one-liners. Also, Joel McHale pointing to a painting: "This is art...get it?"

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

The film is also annoyingly inconsistent with regard to Ted's physical abilities. We're shown, via a typical MacFarlane-ian extended fight scene, that the bear can hold its own in a fistfight with Wahlberg. Yet the entire third act tries to build dramatic stakes by turning him into a helpless kidnap-victim at the hands of Giovanni Ribisi, of all people.

But...
that cameo.
There are two cameos in this. One is a big star that most people will think is kinda cool. But the other is maybe THE GREATEST THING EVER, and there's a subset of fans that will LOSE THEIR SHIT. Well worth the price of admission.
Plus, real shitty, mean Brandon Routh joke. Cold shit, dude.
Anyway, I don't think this film was trying to convey a real message of any kind. Except that Apache Attack Helicopters are the only thing more powerful than a child's wish.

 

[Mr645]

Best fight scene in a movie goes to.......................................
John & Ted in hotel room

 

[Colin Jacobson]

 

[Colin Jacobson]

BTW, I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that plays so differently based on the viewer's age. When I saw it, the under-30s laughed at the puke/fart/etc. jokes but didn't get most of the pop culture references. They clearly had no clue who Tom Skerritt was - even when the movie mentioned "Top Gun", they didn't get it. The vast majority of the other references or more subtle jokes landed with a thud - if the movie didn't go broad, the audience didn't laugh.

Not looking to make some "kids these days/get off of my lawn" post - just making an observation about the crowd with whom I saw the movie. I simply can't recall the last time I saw something that played so differently dependent on age.


I think I was the only one there who got the "Airplane!" reference!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Originally Posted by TravisR /t/321930/ted#post_3944132
Ted is more or less a live action episode of Family Guy. Much like FG, Ted uses ancient sitcom plot elements but adds politically incorrect jokes, profanity and references to 1980's garbage to make it 'new'. In all fairness, it had some laughs in it but I'd say that only FG fans should bother with this movie.

I'm not a "Family Guy" guy but I thought "Ted" was reasonably enjoyable. Didn't like the "easy" jokes at all - MacFarlane relies too much on bodily function/profanity humor - and thought it took too many cheap shots, like the Routh joke.

However, I liked a lot of the smaller moments - even things like the quick reference to Tom Brady's super-human abilities worked well.

I think MacFarlane is reasonably smart and can be clever, but he goes for the easy laugh too often.

He also tends to hurt a joke via milking or too much self-reference:

I liked the Ryan Reynolds cameo but hated that Ted then referred to him as that "Van Wilder-looking guy". We know we saw Ryan Reynolds - the added line was stupid. The line about how Ted sounds like Peter Griffin was also easy - and lame - self-reference, IMO.


So this was better than I expected but still somewhat disappointing because it was so scattershot - if MacFarlane reigns in his willingness to make the easy jokes, he'd be funnier...

 

[joshEH]

Adam Carolla recently made an interesting observation -- he pointed out that the FOX "Animation Domination" block on Sunday nights is dwindling in the ratings, and he said that FOX better hope Ted isn't successful, because if it is, you can pretty much kiss MacFarlane goodbye on TV, at least in the short-term. So now that Ted was #1 this past weekend (no matter how it finishes out), he may have one foot out the TV door now to concentrate upon films.
MacFarlane is definitely a talented guy, and even seems to WANT to stretch himself creatively -- Hellboy II, the proposed Cosmos remake -- but he also seems awfully lazy at times, or at least, afraid to step away from what's worked for him in the past.
I kinda hope he does step away from television, just because at least it may cause him to stretch a little, though Ted certainly seems like it's got all his worst tics on display, too.
I dunno. I'm starting to realize that creatives have to navigate a bit of a minefield in order not to end up wasting their initial promise, and one of the biggest obstacles seems to be success. Kevin Smith was an honestly-talented guy once upon a time (and, to be sure, still is), but he developed an undiscriminating cult-following early on, and made enough money that he didn't have to keep working at it. I fear the same is true of MacFarlane. There's potential there, but no impetus to unlock it.
Although, to be sure, there's inklings. Some of the American Dads he's responsible for spearheading of late have a surprising amount of complexity. Lots of people gave him shit for it (it doesn't quite work as well as he wanted), but the score-less Family Guy episode at the bank vault between Brian and Stewie was, at bare minimum, a risk.
And there's a genuine heart at the center of Ted that, if nurtured, could bloom into something fantastic. But the guy's honorbound by his previous crass bread-and-butter. I think he's got a ways to go, but he definitely has more of a fire under his ass than Smith.

 

I loved this movie. It's one of the funniest I have seen in some time. And I loved the character Ted. I actually missed him when it was over!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Watched Ted tonight....and LOVED IT.

After reading uneven reviews from critics I was
expecting to be let down, but overall, I thought it
was a hilarious film.




Quote:

[COLOR= rgb(24, 24, 24)]There are two cameos in this. One is a big star that most people will think is kinda cool. But the other is maybe [/COLOR]THE GREATEST THING EVER[COLOR= rgb(24, 24, 24)], and there's a subset of fans that will LOSE THEIR SHIT. Well worth the price of admission.[/COLOR]

[COLOR= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Yes. The greatest thing ever[/COLOR]!






It came out of nowhere and when Ted was phoning
Whalberg telling him who was at the apartment, I thought

it was a big joke...



...but then, as big as life as he appeared in the film...

there was...FLASH GORDON.



I was sitting there with a HUGE smile on my face. I mean,

how much do HTF members just LOVE that film. I was just

as excited as Ted and Wahlberg were.



I can't believe that MacFarlane referenced one of the

coolest films to come out of the 80s. If you are a fan of

that film (as I am) you are going to lose yourself.