Review No.160: Ted

I would say that Seth MacFarlane is a fairly polarising figure there are some that will hear no wrong said about the creator of Family Guy while others find his creations tacky and puerile. I feel I sit somewhere in the middle as I was a fan of the early Family Guy series as well as American Dad which I personally think is a better all-round show however I do think that sometimes he puts jokes ahead of plot structure not a bad thing when you're making a twenty minute cartoon but it's a little different when crafting a 90 plus minute film. I say this of course because MacFarlane has now made his big screen debut with Ted in which, as well as directing and co-writing, he lends his voice to Ted a toy bear initially given to eight year old John Bennett who wished that he was his real friend a wish that came true bringing notoriety to both Ted and the Bennett family. Years later we find John at 35, now played by Mark Wahlberg, living with Mila Kunis' Lori his girlfriend of four years as well as Ted who has now grown up to be a drug-taking foul-mouthed layabout who constantly wants to drag John down to his level. Lori feels that Ted is keeping John from being a proper grown up as he still works a dead-end job, in a car rental service, and has to have his childhood toy in bed with him whenever there is a thunderstorm. After an incident in their apartment, which is funnier if you see it first hand, John forces Ted to move out but still sees him every day which brings his relationship with Lori to its tipping point which is not helped by the fact that her sleazy boss Rex is constantly hitting on her. After a lot of jokes MacFarlane seems to want to add a little bit of plot so slides in a story about Giovanni Ribisi's creepy father and his son who want to buy Ted from John but won't take no for an answer.

There's no denying that Ted is absolutely hilarious and if you love Family Guy then I would recommend you see this immediately as it couples expletives with plenty of pop culture references though I think watching Flash Gordon before you see this film would be a good idea to get about ten of the jokes. As I mentioned MacFarlane's never been one for story structure and it shows here as the various plot strands such as Rex's flirtation with Lori and Giovanni Ribisi's pursuit of Ted are given very little time over the bromance between Wahlberg and his bear. This is of little concern early on however the jokes peter out in the last twenty minutes or so and do expose some of the film's shortcomings such as the fact that the central idea about a foul-mouthed children's toy can be stretched too far. Wahlberg is great in the lead, and today seems much more comfortable in a comic role than he did in the woeful Contraband, he and MacFarlane have a natural chemistry which is easy to enjoy as well as being essential to the smooth running of the film. Wahlberg captures this middle-aged man who still refuses to grow up and blames most of his issues on the fact that he has a teddy bear that he helped bring to life it is this theme that gives the film its much needed emotional edge which stops it from being just another offensive comedy. Mila Kunis is also perfectly cast in her role and is given a strong female character rather than one who just puts up with her boyfriend's odd situation it's also clear that MacFarlane knows how to write for her, she does voice Meg in Family Guy after all, which makes her seem natural. Giovanni Ribisi and Joel McHale make the most of their roles the latter doing his usual slimeball routine to play Rex however both just act as plot devices however some hilarious cameos do light up certain scenes. Ted is certainly one of the funniest films of the year and MacFarlane has cemented himself as someone who can also do feature films however I still have the issue that I feel he puts jokes over plot structure but then I don't think I care that much when a film makes me laugh as much as this did.

Verdict: Possibly the funniest film of the year so far however one that cares little for most of its plot strands MacFarlane is on form here making the most of his talented comic leads creating a movie with emotional core if not one that is evenly balanced so for those reasons I will give Ted 7.5/10

Review No.62: Contraband

Trying to play catch-up now as we enter May and the first of three reviews is of the Mark Wahlberg film Contraband to which I'm not sure which genre it falls. I think it has aspirations of being sort of an action thriller in the vein of Gone in 60 Seconds though that had the appeal of a lot of shiny fast cars and Angelina Jolie not watching much instead Contraband has Kate Beckinsale not doing much while husband Wahlberg goes out looking for drugs. The similarities with Gone are like Cage, Wahlberg has also been out of the game in his case as a smuggler but has to do one last job after his brother-in-law gets into trouble with Giovanni Ribisi's psychotic drug baron. Going back on the ship his father used to use with his trusty sidekick, played by Lukas Haas, along with said brother-in-law he raises the suspicions of JK Simmons' captain so is forced to be the ship's errand boy. Once in Panama he meets up with Diego Luna who plays the guy who has the gear however once again he is a bit loopy so he and Haas wind up in trouble and almost miss the ship. Meanwhile on dry land Ribisi is threatening Wahlberg's wife played by Beckinsale so she and their sons go to stay with a family friend played by Ben Foster but is he all he seems?

As I said Contraband has the idea that it is a slick crime thriller in the vein of Ocean's 11 or the aforementioned Nic Cage film however its main problem is that it's very boring. There's no denying that Wahlberg is a charismatic film presence however here he is wasted as a slightly boring lead character who you fail to believe once did this smuggling lark for a living. In fact on the side of the good guys it is Ben Foster who is actually given a more interesting role so he runs with it and indeed it is the scenes featuring him that are some of the film's more intriguing. Ribisi and Luna both ham it up as two crazed villains on each side of the border however at times both of them lapse into caricature almost making this seem like a spoof of those heist films rather than one of them. It's fair to say that everything is quite stylish however there is no substance and not even JK Simmons doing another of his blustered authority figure roles can save the day. The biggest failure is the casting of Kate Beckinsale who has very little to do throughout although does seem to survive getting beaten about a lot throughout the film. I have to say I didn't have high hopes for Contraband but I thought at least I would be entertained however that didn't happen that's not to say it didn't have its moments but overall I was just disappointed.

Verdict: A film that promises a lot but never delivers with some really dull scripting and acting at least has a couple of interesting performances that bolster it up to 4/10