484. Ted (2012)

Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis

Director: Seth MacFarlane

Running Time: 106 mins

Ted is an American film about a young boy who wishes for his teddy bear to come to life at Christmas. As a miracle, it happens, and the two grow up together side by side, until the man becomes involved in a serious relationship, which puts a strain on his and the bear’s friendship.

This film is just such good fun! It may have a preposterous and idiotic plot, full of completely immature, but hilarious comedy, however it satirises its idiocy to such an extent that it ends up being a constantly entertaining experience to watch.

Now, it is worth noting that if you can’t stand a film that prides itself on toilet humour and complete stupidity, you are going to hate this beyond belief. However, seeing as I find all of that to be hugely entertaining, this film ended up being really good fun.

Despite the fact that the nature of some of the humour in this film is actually quite shocking and seemingly unintelligent, it’s just so simple and direct that you can’t help but laugh at it, even though you might find something as going too far or even being offensive, which is an excellent trait of this film.

Also, juxtaposing this level of adult humour and themes with what is, in effect, a kids’ story, is a hilarious twist in the story. At the beginning, you expect a slightly comedic, but hugely cheesy fantasy story, but you get everything but that later on, making it ultimately even more shocking, and then even more funny.

Although the film threatens to turn into a sappy, cheesy story, it controls itself incredibly well, finding humour in places where it’s completely inappropriate, which makes it a lot more outstanding and subsequently entertaining.

However, there are points where the plot does turn to be surprisingly emotional, in a sincere way, because you do feel quite a strong emotional bond with the main two characters, and at the (oddly frightening) finale, there is a really strong emotive element that catches you off-guard when you’re waiting for some more jokes.

And once you’ve slipped into an emotional mindset in one scene, the film comes back at you with more ridiculous comedy, making even more of a shock, and that epitomises the atmosphere of the whole film: constantly good fun, but oddly clever enough to keep surprising and engaging you as it goes on, and that’s why it gets an 8.1 from me.