Posts Tagged ‘slacker’
Ted: Review
Seth MacFarlane co-wrote, produced, played the voice of the title character as well as this being his live action full length directorial debut. Mark Wahlberg stars as John Bennett, a kid that no one seems to like or get along with. One Christmas Day he receives an adorable stuffed teddy bear that instantly becomes his best friend which he names Ted. He then makes a wish that changes everything. He wishes that Ted was real. Word spreads fast and next thing you know he becomes a celebrity. Fast forward 27 yeas later and Ted’s celebrity status went downhill. He and John are still best friends that do what most lazy slackers do: get drunk and get high. Its not until John’s girlfriend of four years (played by Mila Kunis) gives him an ultimatum that things being to change in the relationship between a man and his bear.
I haven’t seen a whole lot of MacFarlane’s animated shows (Family Guy, American Dad) but the bit that I have seen made me a fan of the randomness of it all and Ted is nothing different. The humor is raunchy if not more raunchy than anything you would usually see from MacFarlane and smart as well. Although in a packed theater some of the jokes went over the crowds head and all I heard was crickets. For the record, I thought they were funny. The other glorious thing that was so random was the two characters (somewhat crazy) love of Flash Gordon. The dream sequence involving Mark Wahlberg is hilariously cheesy. Wahlbeg hasn’t done too many comedy roles but I feel like this might be one of his strong points. He has great comedic timing and he is believable in his role as a doofus/slacker type. Mila Kunis has also proved that she can hang with the guys when it comes to disgusting comedy but still coming off as a voice of reason to John. I recommend this movie only if you want to laugh your butt off and are not easily offended.
The Lie: Review
Directed and Starring Joshua Leonard (Blair Witch Project), The Lie shows us the life of Lonnie (Leonard) and how he feels stuck in a rut. He’s a married man with a six month old little girl and realizes his life isn’t the way he quite pictured it. On whim he decides to call into work and tell his boss he can’t make it into work because his daughter is sick. He then goes out and plays “hooky” for the day and enjoys himself. He enjoys himself so much that he decides to do it again the next day but scrambles for an excuse while on the phone and tells his boss his 6 month old daughter died the previous night. He starts to gain sympathy from everyone around him because of this lie and somewhat enjoys the benefits a tad. What comes next is a journey of regret and self discovery as a husband and father.
It has an interesting premise and that’s what attracted me to this flick. The acting is fair and it has a well rounded cast. The filmmakers did a good job at excluding the lie from any synopsis or description because I don’t think I would’ve sat through it if I would’ve known. It was kind of off-putting to know that even after Lonnie told the lie he kind of just went along with it. I’m not one to be appalled by subject matter in a film or anything of that nature. I think that if it serves a purpose to help the story along then fine but I think this was done just to get the cheap “shock” factor in. It worked to a certain degree but not in the way they probably wanted or expected. Although the underlining message was understandable, the rest of the film felt like a long complaint letter about the characters’ life thus far. I would say, if you’re curious then go right ahead and give it a view but other than that you should wait till it hits IFC at 2am and DVR it.
