Late to the Party Reviews: Ted

The big problem with Ted is that the jokes don’t stretch far enough. While the main joke, that there is a womanising, dope smoking, sweary teddy bear running around, might last for a half an hour TV episode, in a film it gets really old really quickly. That’s not to say that it isn’t funny, it’s about a million times funnier that a lot of films that come out, it’s just that it isn’t as funny as it could be. It’s like too little jam spread over one massive crumpet.

The other major beef I have with the film is that a lot of the humour is aimed pretty low. Whilst that other MacFarlene project, Family Guy, often mixes up the crude with quite sophisticated (not entirely sure that’s the right way to describe it, but anyway…) jokes, Ted seems like it’s been pitched much lower. I don’t know whether this is just because McFarlene had an off day, or whether it was a conscious decision to give the film a broader appeal. Whatever the reason, it’s a real shame, if I wanted to watch something at this level I would go and see Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay for the tenth time.   

Again though, it’s not that the film isn’t funny, it’s just that it feels like it could have been a lot funnier. And that’s pretty damning in a comedy film. The one thing that I will say in its favour is that the fight scenes are all really good. This is one of the things that I have always found odd about MacFarlene, how the hell does he manage to choreograph such awesome fights? Anybody who has seen the Peter Griffin vs Giant Chicken fights will know what I mean. I mean, it wasn’t enough to change my ultimate opinion of the film, but it was still nice to see.  

So there you go then, a pretty funny film, with some good fights, but which is basically a bit disappointing. Watch it if you like Seth MacFarlene anyway, but don’t expect it to change your life.

Watch if you like: Family Guy

If you like this then watch: Harold and Kumar