Movie Review: TED

TED
Director: Seth McFarlane
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth McFarlane, Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi

Who doesn't love a good Christmas miracle. For a young John Bennett, he knows all about Christmas miracles. At a young age he was a lonely kid without many friends. For Christmas one year he received a teddy bear aptly naming him "Teddy". Teddy came alive overnight and went from a stuffed bear to a talking bear becoming John's new best friend. He is not an imaginary friend as his parents can see and hear him. He even becomes a world-wide sensation after appearing on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. John (Wahlberg) grows up with Teddy (voice of McFarlane) by his side. They have become roommates and Teddy is still a huge part of John's life despite the fact John is now in his thirties. They both live a lazy, pot-smoking, junk food eating lifestyle.

The only person in John's life that seems to have an issue with this lackadaisical living is his girlfriend, Lori (Kunis). As their four year anniversary approaches, Lori starts questioning their relationship. Will John propose on their date? She believes that their relationship is not moving as naturally as it should be due to Ted's presence in John's life. John agrees to try to distance himself away from Ted without fulling giving him up. Lori and John head to a work party given by Lori's lustful boss, Rex (McHale). Rex is fully determined he would be a better match for Lori than immature John. The night takes an interesting turn when Ted calls John luring him to a party he is having. Their hero, Flash Gordon himself Sam J. Jones, is at the party. John is pretty confident that he can sneak out of the party for fifteen minutes to say hi to Sam J. Jones and get back without Lori noticing his absence. If it were only that simple. John must also deal with a crazy fan of Ted's (Ribisi) and his son who will stop at nothing to steal him away from John.

Seth McFarlane is best known for creating "Family Guy" and doing many of the voices on there. This is his first full length feature. If you've seen "Family Guy", you are very familiar with the raunchy, outrageous, often times politically incorrect humor McFarlane writes. You will find all of that here with some references to "Family Guy" and many other aspects of pop culture. The movie opens with that jolly Christmas feel and a perfection narration by the Patrick Stewart behind it. The story seems to wander at times. I thought the Giovanni Ribisi story line was unnecessary and made it feel longer than it needed to be. I am also wondering why Mark Wahlberg used an over-the-top Boston accent and Mila Kunis barely even tried using one. Despite it feeling a bit long, McFarlane has written one of the funniest movies released all year. I applaud him for his sense of humor and not being afraid of going too far or offending anybody.

RATING: ***1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)