It is good news: Ted more than delivers on its terrific trailers. For all its stoner/bodily functions gags, Ted is an extremely smart movie in its conception and writing, cleverly hitting its audience sectors squarely and successfully: a buddy/slacker movie for the guys, superior rom-com for the ladies, a slew of wonderfully-chosen 80s references for that generation, and of course the child in everyone through the central character of Ted. To its credit, the movie draws in the viewer from the outset (even Patrick Stewart's opening narration provides two laugh-out-loud gags) and at no point does the audience find any need to question the ridiculous high-concept premise, such is the power of the writing and characterisation of Ted (voiced wonderfully by creator Seth Macfarlane) and the playing of the 'human' leads. Wahlberg gives another superb understated deadpan comedic turn (similar to The Other Guys), and Kunis equally gives her character a depth and credibility that most actresses would find hard to match in the material. As well as the ridiculously high comedy hit-rate, the film gains strength as much from the Kunis-Wahlberg relationship (the audience practically wills them to stay together) as the sincere Wahlberg-Ted friendship. The introduction of Giovanni Ribisi's rent-a-twitchy-psycho-parent/fan feels more like a plot device than truly convincing, but it does allow for a crowd-pleasing moment involving the son that is almost up there with 'Hulk smash Loki' in The Avengers. Macfarlane's direction never falters in confidence or execution, the straight tone allows for his trademark outrageous/offensive/brutally-honest moments to come out of nowhere, there are some surprising cameos, Walter Murphy's old-school music score is absolutely glorious, and a personal highlight of a recreation of a spoof dance scene from an 80s comedy classic was an utter joy. Ted is a daft, silly, ridiculous movie that is executed so terrifically by all concerned that it may well turn out to be the most entertaining comedy movie of this year.
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