Ted

Running Time: 106 minutes

Media: Cinematic pre-release

A. O. Scott of The New York Times has recently referred to Ted as "boring, lazy and wildly unoriginal". I'll be honest with you here, my dear audience; having read his review, in my personal and unbiased opinion, A. O. Scott has no bloody clue and needs to see the film for what it is, and not what he feels it needs to be.

Although this movie has been classified as a comedy, it is also a rom-com, a thriller, a coming-of-age film.... and so much more... The interesting thing about this is how Seth MacFarlane, who also voices the title character, Ted has written in the style of his own comedy cartoon series, The Family Guy, peppering the plot line with a few jokes here and there that can only fit in perfectly in a film like this.

For those who a little uncertain about how a live teddy-bear comes to life... we need to go back in time to around 1985 where a considerably excluded eight year-old named John Bennett, in fact, so excluded that even Jewish boys getting beaten up by gentiles tell him to get lost... (and I'm not being anti-Semitic here, this actually happens in the film!) makes a wish some time after Christmas that his newly-acquired teddy-bear would come alive so that he could always have a friend...

And he does... and over time, the friendship develops and Ted becomes a celebrity in his own right, but he also eventually becomes fairly belligerent and gets himself into trouble, possibly too often for his own good... Fast forward some twenty-seven years later and "Ted" now lives with John (played by Mark Wahlberg) and his girlfriend of four years, Lori (played by the absolutely gorgeous Mila Kunis, who also is a regular on Family Guy) and let's just say that the idea of Ted being a third-wheel in the relationship is no longer appealing to Lori and asks John to get Ted to move out.

Things start spiraling out of control for Ted, Lori and John when a series of events involving a sexually repressed boss, a supermarket manager who appears to be a bit of a doormat and an obsessed fan of Ted's bring the film to a climax that nobody expects, but when it does happen, your heart just jumps into your throat... And this part of the film deliciously balances out the incredible laugh factor a viewer will get from it. The film's cherry on the cake is the occasional narration by Patrick Stewart, whose dulcet tones highlight the storyline with an amazing juxtaposition of the language that comes out from his mouth... Oh, I have to tell you, it's refreshing! It kinda destroys the stereotype of what Patrick Stewart is all about, Shakespearian actor, Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Enterprise, etc., etc. He's not so straight and narrow anymore, he's actually quite a impish sort of lad now... it's great to see... Throw in some somewhat awkward thriller parts with the introduction of Giovanni Ribisi as an obsessed fan trying to obtain Ted for his son, and you have a well-received hit.

The film, despite the craziness and offensive jokes here and there, poking fun on just about everything... which is what MacFarlane does in almost any of his work, like in Family Guy or in American Dad, in such a way that no-one is excluded, in turn includes everyone, and that is the unique thing about this film... No matter where you're from this film, made an entire audience move with the storyline, made everyone laugh and everyone clap and whoop and cheer together... And I just find that amazing, because I believe is what a movie needs to do in order to gain some popularity, much to A. O. Scott's chagrin, of whom seems to view this film on a singular basis, rather than what it does for an audience as a whole, and it is for that reason that I, the Movie Madman am awarding my highest rating of five stars to Ted. If you ever get to see it, please do, you won't regret it...