Ted

I really like Family Guy, but I don't particularly care for Peter Griffin.  I love Stewie and Brian, but Peter goes over my line for decency. Not just over. Puke-fest over.

Ted is a cute, rather large teddy bear who has Peter Griffin's voice. Not surprisingly, that's because he's played by Ted's screenwriter and director Seth MacFarlane. Ted is just a fuzzy reimagined Peter, with the same scatological humor and mind-bending grossness. You can see why I'm not crazy about Ted the movie or Ted the character.

I like humor that's surprising, and Ted the character is certainly that. Foul-mouthed, gross, violent at times, but his humor is certainly surprising. But I do also want my humor to be witty. There's no wit within 10 yards of Ted.

Thankfully, the movie is somewhat saved by actors Mark Wahlberg, who plays innocent dumb guy really well, and Mila Kunis, who can do practically anything. There is a bit of originality in the screenplay, in that Ted as a character has never been drawn quite like this before, where the public knows all about him. But that originality is lost once the movie gets going, because we can predict pretty much where the story is going, even if we can't predict which prostitute(s) Ted will end up with. And why.

Thumbs down.