This
first feature film by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane offers little
deviation from his usual schtick: 8th grade level raunchy
and crude gags, fart jokes, ridiculous people and situations, and a
serious penchant for creating heretofore innocents into foul mouthed,
selfish creatures who revel in drugs, booze and hookers. In Family
Guy, it was baby Stewie-here, it is a teddy bear aptly named Ted.
The
Fable: 6 year old freak kid with no friends wishes upon a falling
star for a lifelong pal and viola! the universe grants his wish in
the form of a talking and sentient teddy bear. Ted, whose accent
channels Cheer's Cliff the mailman, becomes an overnight sensation
when revealed to the world. But true to the 15 minute rule of
celebrity, he fades into obscurity. Flash forward-the kid is 35 years
old (Mark Wahlberg), works a loser job at a car rental place and
basically spends most of his time getting high and drunk, watching
kid stuff on TV with Ted. His ever suffering (but hot) girlfriend
(Mila Kunis) reaches the end of her rope with a boyfriend whose best
buddy in the whole wide world is a talking teddy bear.
Standard,
predictable story line here: boy has girl, loses her multiple times,
yet defying logic wins her back. Ahh, the power of love and pretty
dumb people. McFarlane pretty much reruns his Family Guy stuff here
and exhibits his ability to both have awfully poor taste jokes (a
pile of crap left on the floor by a hooker) and sharply hilarious
(how Boston girl’s orgasm sounds).
Yet,
McFarlane keeps it marketable. As gross as he is, he doesn't turn off
his target audience of 15-34 year old males. I mean, if he really
wanted to push the envelope, he could have had the girlfriend trying
to compete with a Ted who gave blowjobs. She'd no longer be needed if
you follow the logic of the gag. What a situation! But, that would
seriously freak out his ever homo-phobic demographic wouldn't it?
Coward!
In
the end, this is another installment of the man child franchise
Hollywood has been churning out for the past 15 years. In true
tradition of the industry, beat something to death while you can
still make money at it. But if movies reflect culture, what does this
genre say about how men are viewed in America? Your choices according
to Hollywood:
-Loser,
terminally immature fools who can't figure out the simplest
relationship with women
-Giant
walking assholes with money who treat women solely as sex objects
-Cripplingly
self-absorbed men who cannot relate to another human being no less
have a relationship with one
-Extremely
violent and psychopathic men who abuse women in a multitude of ways
-Gay
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