One of the cinema’s
funniest characters
could be Bad Santa, in which Billy Bob Thornton played a boozy thief posing as a department-store Father Christmas.
Scenes of his potty-mouthed rants against the kids on his knee were effortlessly hilarious, simply because of the contrast.
The first film by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane centres on a bad-tempered, teddy bear that gets laughs from the same contrast between a sacred childhood character and his distinctly un-PC behaviour. Think of it as Bridesmaids for blokes – and easily the funniest film of the year.
The film kicks off on Christmas Day, 1985, when the young John makes a wish that his new stuffed toy will be his best friend forever. Somehow his dream comes true with the bear coming alive.
Soon Ted is touring chatshows and staring out from magazine covers but, as narrator Patrick Stewart wryly points out, there comes a point in the life of all 80s child stars where nobody cares (“like Corey Feldman”).
Fast forward to the present, and the two-foot teddy is able to walk down the street unnoticed and now spends his days getting stoned, drunk and swapping jokes with the now grown-up John (played by Mark Wahlberg).
But with his girlfriend (Mila Kunis) keen to move in and urging him to put aside his weed and become a responsible adult, Ted is made to move out and stand on his own two paws.
The idea of a cute-as-a-button teddy swearing and behaving badly should wear awfully thin, awfully quickly but it doesn’t. In fact, Ted is a movie that gets even funnier as co-writer MacFarlane (who also provides his voice) pushes the envelope into ever darker, deeper realms of insanity.
There are also one-liners galore, most of them unrepeatable here.
Despite the star being a toy, this is not, I repeat, not, a film for kids and men might appreciate the smutty language more than women. (Agencies)
