Review of Ted (2012) by Stefan G — 31 Jan 2015

The concept for this film is simple, yet original, and funnier than most episodes of Family Guy, but the originality mainly comes from its deconstruction of typical family fare. The humour is pretty familiar, and occasionally lowbrow, but it's fresh, and there are plenty of good moments (particularly the party scene with Sam Jones).

While plenty of the jokes work, a lot of the other jokes are hit-or-miss. The characters themselves offer plenty of personality, but they tend to be more unlikable, until the film's climax, where everything is somehow good again in the conventional presto chango fashion.

Honestly, I thought it was a somewhat good film, but in my opinion, it's plagued by a number of Hollywood clichés, including the heavily overdone "bromance versus romance" plot, which happens to be the film's central premise.

The clichés wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't so painfully apparent that Seth McFarlane isn't a very good writer. Apparently McFarlane has a good enough vocal range to voice Ted, but isn't quite up to the task of writing a film that can do better than decent.

To simplify my point, it's dumb, and yet surprisingly funny comedy film. If only it weren't weighed down by lazy writing.