Movie Review – Ted

A Teddy for the grown ups

It was one of the films which was lying for a long time in my HDD where I couldn’t decide to watch or to delete. Of course, it’s not acclaimed but the thought of being an Adult comedy with a Teddy Bear was so enticing. Plus, it had Mark Wahlberg who is generally known for his stoic face and upright stance in an action movie. I was more curious on how he’d have faired in a comedy. Also had Mila Kunis, who fits in a similar profile but such a brilliant and lovely actor.

The film sets the tone from scene one. I thought it’d be an unreliable narrator and Ted was going to be like Calvin and it’d take a serious tone but it didn’t, thankfully so. I immediately got reminded of South Park when the narrator says that it was a time where neighbourhood kids gang up to hit a Jew in Boston. It was lovely when a young John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is asked to fuck off, not only the kids who’re beating up, but by the kid who’s getting beaten up too. It gave me a chuckle.

John receives a present in the form of a Teddy Bear and at a stroke of thunder wishes him to be alive and so does it happen. Till that point where he informs his parents about it, I was of the opinion that Ted would indeed be John’s illusion but it greats broken at that point when his parents too are able to see him having a real life. It was another good scene where the narrator comments about how, after years that no one gives a shit, even if it’s a talking Teddy Bear.

I was constantly trying to gauge, why was the film funny. Because its such a simple idea. A role of a friend, someone like Chris Tucker, done by a Teddy Bear. Why didn’t it occur to anyone that a film like this could be made where a Teddy Bear could be considered a real person. Even if it had been done, it would have been an over-the-top fantasy movie, not as a movie like this where the character is both loved and hated.

Even though the Teddy doesn’t grow in size, it does everything an adult does. I mean everything, in fact more than everything and gets along because he’s a Teddy Bear. How cute is that. There is a dialogue in ‘The Hangover Part II’ where Stu says something like, “A monkey sucking on a dick is funny in any language”. Similarly, a Teddy Bear making out with a hot girl at the back of supermarket is funny at any time. He, getting a promotion for that act, betters it. Like Ted says, “Oh Shit”

I can completely understand why this movie would have become such a rage at the time of release. Men and Teddy Bear and not something you could relate to but with Ted, any man can relate to and relate to like hell. He’s everything a man would want, as opposed to what Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) says, that she wants a boy instead of man.

With the flow of the movie, it was evident that she was going to break up with him, he was going to break up with Ted and Ted would do something cute to get together and she’d finally want both of them in her life. So, it was nothing surprising when it happens but wasn’t boring too because of the predictability. Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) and his kid Robert’s (Aedin Mincks) was actually a little damper for me because it felt forced. As if a character like that has to be present compulsorily to make it a grand climax.

It was one of the movies, again, which would have worked even better for people of the culture. Because the Flash part, as much as it was funny for the Coke scene and breakup due to that, couldn’t be as nostalgic as it could be if it had featured Shaktimaan. That’s a miss one would have to undergo whenever watching a non-native movie.

Anyways the best part of the movie was that it doesn’t take itself too serious at any point. Even at such a serious juncture where the jerk of a boss, Rex (Joel McHale) gets rejected for the umpteenth time, he lets out a fart and becomes relieved. That’s some superb writing. Seth MacFarlane does have a flair for comedies.