The Agency's Posts

In-Your-Face Fitness: Vanity can be a healthy asset: Exercising to maintain good looks is great because it helps you stay healthy You're so vain.....
Read More>

Ann Hathaway: The Dark Knight Rises: Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane has ripped away any sense of security and....
Read More>

Movie review: 'Act of Valor': Real Navy SEALs star in the fictional film about a terrorist plot they must foil. Their combat....
Read More>

Movie review: 'The Secret World of Arrietty' is impeccable and pure: A family of miniature 'borrowers' living in the shadow of their human-sized counterparts makes....
Read More>

Live Review. SINEAD O'CONNOR: When Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor walked onto the stage of the El Rey Theatre on....
Read More>

'Safe House': Director Daniel Espinosa doesn't take safe route: When Universal Pictures hired Daniel Espinosa to direct its rogue CIA agent thriller "
Read More>

Matt Groening discusses 'The Simpsons' hitting 500 episodes: Matt Groening had a 'vague idea of invading pop culture.' His invasion, 'The Simpsons,' became an....
Read More>

Big screen or small, Dustin Hoffman feels 'Luck'-y: The Oscar-winning actor says at age 74, he is fortunate to have landed such a richly written part....
Read More>

William Shatner boldly goes just about everywhere in his career: William Shatner is standing in a mostly bare rehearsal room in Hollywood, his arms....
Read More>

'Act of Valor': Navy SEALs get their close-up: Even before the Navy parachute team dropped out of the sky high above Sunset Boulevard, you....
Read More>

Whitney Houston's 'Sparkle': Should it go the Jackson route?: Barely six weeks after Michael Jackson died in the summer of 2009, Sony Pictures made a....
Read More>

HEADSHOTS: Tom Contrino: We recently worked with Award winning New York Fashion Photographer, Tom Contrino on a couple....
Read More>

NBC needs 'The Voice' to turn not only chairs but heads: The singing contest, with Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine as....
Read More>
Ted': Crude comedy doesn't quite bear up
Posted on: 06/29/12
Share/Save/Bookmark


 Like "The Hangover"and its sequel, "Ted"is a bully of a comedy but a bully with just enough calculated heart to make it a hit. It plays like a movie tryout for a TV series, specifically a Seth MacFarlane series, which means a high quotient of startlingly crude ethnic and cultural stereotypes leavened by a sincere appreciation for American popular music of another era.

The movie's soundtrack promises old-time sentiment and heartfelt pathos, with a little swing. The jokes, meantime, depend on how many R-rated synonyms there are for a woman's vagina, as spoken by a plush toy.

As a boy, young John grows up in a Boston suburb where beating up Jews for Christmas is an annual pastime. (Compare this joke to the one at the beginning of "Borat." One is dubious; the other one, in "Borat," is inspired.) John wishes upon a star for a friend to call his own. His teddy bear becomes a talking teddy bear. The bear, Ted, enjoys some fame (appearing on Carson), John grows up into Mark Wahlberg, the pair remain best pals and bong-devoted couch potatoes well into John's arrested-development adulthood.
 

"Ted" concerns what John must do to earn the respect and devotion of his longtime public relations exec girlfriend, played by Mila Kunis, while still keeping disreputable, trash-talking, skank-chasing Ted in his life.

This is MacFarlane's feature debut as a director, and he co-wrote the script as well as producing and providing the voice of Ted. Ted sounds so much like Peter Griffin in MacFarlane's long-running Fox animated series "Family Guy," the script is shamed into referring to the resemblance. You can find this clever, or you can find it lazy, and this is why MacFarlane is the biggest mixed blessing in contemporary TV comedy: He is both.

The bits I like in "Ted" are not the bits such as the staggeringly brutal brawl between Ted and John, or anything involving Ted's sociopathic kidnappers. I do like MacFarlane's obsessive devotion to the 1980 film version of "Flash Gordon" starring Sam J. Jones, who plays himself in "Ted" for reasons that ... well, who cares. Like "Family Guy," "Ted" is only about its own hyperlinked pop culture references. There's one scene in which Wahlberg does a parody of Robert Hays in "Airplane!" doing a parody of John Travolta in"Saturday Night Fever" and while it earns points for nerve, nerve isn't everything in comedy. Plenty of people took their preteen kids to a recent downtown Chicago preview screening of "Ted," which was great, just as it was great to hear one of those nervous and disoriented preteens screaming Ted's nickname for vagina over and over and over, all the way down Illinois Street.

mjphillips@tribune.com

COMMENTS
Be the first to post a comment!


Post A Comment:




  • It's 2020! Start booking roles in commercials, fashion, films, theater and more with The Agency Online!

  • NEW WORKSHOP with Barbara Barna & Sean De Simone!

    Hi Everyone and Happy Summer! Sean at Sean De Simone casting and Barbara Barna are teaming up for a super informative and fun Hosting for Home Shopping workshop. A great opportunity for established or experienced TV Hosts and Experts interested in learning how to get noticed and how to get in....
  • MASTERCLASS W. Robin Carus & David John Madore

    A Special Offer for the Agency Community, from one of our favorite NYC Casting Directors! EMAIL FacetheMusicWithUs@gmail.com Or Eventbrite To Sign Up! Class Size is Limited.
  • Don't Fall Into The Comparison Trap

    Hi Everyone! As the second installment in an ongoing series of features by the Agency's amazing community, here's some sage advice from our own Regina Rockensies; a humble (& awesome)veteran we've had the pleasure of working with for a long time. Have an excellent week! : ) - The Agency....
  • One Model's Agreement

    Hi Everyone! As the first piece in an ongoing series of original articles by the Agency community, here's a short reflection on some of the values of professional acting & modeling that we can all keep in mind for our next casting. Good luck on your castings &shoots this week! : ) -....




 
home       castings&news       privacy policy       terms and conditions      contact us      browser tips
Official PayPal Seal