Ed's Review Dot Com

Universal Pictures, Media Rights Capital, Fuzzy Door Productions,

Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Warburton, Matt Walsh, Jessica Barth, Aedin Mincks, Bill Smitrovich

John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) was a lonely child who had no friends. None of the kids liked him, so one Christmas this little boy made a big Christmas wish that his favorite teddy bear, Ted (Seth McFarland) would become real and be able to talk to him. Well, it came true, and Ted and John became best friends for life. But just like “Puff, the Magic Dragon” John grew up and found Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) and fell hopelessly in love with her, and though she was very tolerant of John and Ted’s antics, eventually you know it’s going to cause a big problem. Having a stuffed toy for a best friend definitely delayed John’s maturity, but somehow he’s going to have to grow up. This is a buddy picture, but it’s definitely not a kids movie. Ted is one naughty little teddy bear!

This was a very popular film, and I understand that. It’s unique, that’s for sure. Like movies like “The Muppet Movie” where they treat puppets like they are real people, this film just accepts Ted for what he is, a live teddy bear. But it’s probably closer to “Child’s Play” character Chucky than it is to the Muppets. There are several things I really liked about this movie. One has to be the narration which is hysterical. The narrator gets off on a tangent, and says the most unexpected things sometimes, but it’s done in the serious voice that any fairy tale would have. Secondly is the way everyone treats Ted like you would a live teddy bear. He becomes a celebrity for a while, until everyone gets used to him and his 15 minutes is all used up. Ted gets his shot on the Tonight Show, but soon he’s just accepted as normal. This is funny too, as it’s the opposite of how they usually do things in this kind of movie. Remember the classic Warner Brothers cartoon where the guy found a singing frog? Every time someone was around he would stop singing and just sit there and say “Ribbit”. Well, that’s not very realistic. Ted, on the other hand, acts like anyone else would. When young Johnny tells his parents that his bear has come to life, of course they don’t believe him, but Ted steps right out and says hello.

There are some other jewels in this film as well. Patrick Warburton has a role that is really out of character for him and is really funny at several points in the film. He’s John’s co-worker at the rental car place and is a surprising characters. Joel McHale also has a small role that adds a lot to the humor as Lori’s horny boss. Mila Kunis as Lori is also a big add to the movie. I don’t think anyone could have done a better job of playing this character, and she does a really good job!

The key to the humor in this movie is just like Seth MacFarlane’s other work, like Family Guy, where it’s all about saying the most inappropriate things at the most unexpected time. This is definitely all Seth’s movie, and if you’re not the kind to get shocked by a foul mouthed talking teddy bear, but are a fan of his other work, you’re going to enjoy Ted. It definitely is different, but I found out why it was so darn popular. It’s really funny in it’s own unique twisted way.

Here is the red band trailer for “Ted”

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Blue Sky Studios,

Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Nicki Minaj, Aubrey Graham, Jennifer Lopez, Queen Latifah, Aziz Ansari, Joy Behar, Peter Dinklage, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Wanda Sykes, Patrick Stewart, Heather Morris, Rebel Wilson, Josh Gad

A catastrophic event sends Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) drifting away from Ellie (Queen Latifa) and the rest of the herd. They’re trying to work their way back when they are captured by bloodthirsty pirates. After escaping they try to steal the ship and make the long trek back home in this 4th installment of the Ice Age series of animated films.

I will admit that I was never a big fan of the Ice Age movies, not even the first one. I just didn’t get into the characters, nor the story from the beginning, although several of them I have tried to watch multiple times. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I went into this one. I stared at it in the “new releases” before finally deciding to give it a try and put it in my queue. Well, I was not surprised to come to the realization that I’m just tired of this story. Through about seventeen “Land Before Time” straight to video sequels, I didn’t find myself as bored as I was through Continental Drift. In the very beginning we’re treated to another round of that stupid squirrel trying to get his acorn and starting the earth to break up and the continents to split apart. Trouble is that unlike Luxor the Lamp from Pixar or Tinkerbell and the castle from Disney films, they aren’t just a mascot that appears during the opening seconds. We’re instead treated to a mini cartoon with this hysterical (not) creature chasing an acorn. Now Wile E Coyote was a one trick Road Runner chaser, but they were very original and were fun to watch. But this mini cartoon to introduce the film was completely shown in the trailer, so it was absolutely nothing new to see in the movie. I realize that they always do that, but it’s always annoyed me for some reason. (I just watched Wreck-It Ralph again in the bargain theater because my Grandson wanted to see it again, and watched with pleasure the opening cartoon about the guy and girl and the paper airplanes that was as fresh this time as the last time.) But I had seen the trailer for IA4 so many times that I know that bit about the core of the earth too well to enjoy watching it again.

The story is typical of Ice Age films, and a lot like the rest, and also a lot like other animated stories (like Happy Feet Two for example) but just left me disappointed. This has been a rough week, as I faced both Frankenweenie and this one in the same week. Of the two, I’d choose this one, but not by much. Now I must say that the younger folk won’t mind so much that the story is so similar. I have grandkids that have watched Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo hundreds and hundreds of times! The kids will enjoy the action and the animated characters just fine, and if you have a little one to entertain, you can put this on and they’ll love it. I don’t condemn the film, but just feel for me I’ve worn out the concept and I doubt I’ll be watching Ice Age 5 when it’s sure to come around. When it was over, I just said, “Eh!” and shrugged my shoulders. Not awful but just not very exciting.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Walt Disney Pictures, Tim Burton Animation Co., Tim Burton Productions

Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Winona Ryder, Robert Capron, Conchata Ferrell, James Hiroyuki Liao, Tom Kenny

Victor Frankenstein is a young boy with a dog named Sparky who is very interested in science and the upcoming science fair at school. Sparky is hit by a car and is killed, but young Victor brings him back to life by a stroke of lightning. He tries to keep it a secret, but as the family, the neighborhood, and finally the whole town finds out about it, everyone, it seems, wants a part of the poor boy. This black and white cartoon is a homage by “Master or Weird” Tim Burton (director) to the original Frankenstein legend and particularly the original film.

Ok, so I get it that Mr. Burton does weird cartoon stories (The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, etc.), and that he’s very creative in his own way. I even like a lot of his work. But I was left flat by this film. I think it’s pretty dark and probably pretty boring for young kids and will probably frighten them, and I don’t think there is enough meat and potatoes for anyone older. It seems like the story is just lacking so much. A couple jabs at Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, there’s not much else going on here. It just seems they took a short story and turned it into a long, short story. I found a lot of it boring, and it lacked anything to hold my interest. Now I know that true Burton fans will adore his work, and I know people will be claiming that I totally missed his genius in the story, and the whole point went over my head. It’s that it’s too artsy and I’m just too unsophisticated to realize how genius it is. Well, I call that the emperor has no clothes, and that it was a good idea, and a nice attempt to pay tribute to the original, but simply more work needed to be put into it to develop the story a bit past this superficial thing we got. It could have been so much better, but it doesn’t have near the depth of his other works. Even Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, although one really weird story, has a lot more depth and detail than this story does. Certainly not up to the other cartoon fantasies he has developed, it just left me wanting a lot more and feeling I’ve been had. There have been a lot of comparisons to Paranorman. Paranorman wins hands down!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New in theaters this weekend Friday January 10, 2013

• Gangster Squad
• A Haunted House
• Quartet
• Struck by Lightning
• Fairhaven
• The Baytown Outlaws
• Zero Dark Thirty

Last Weeks Top Box Office:

1 – Texas Chainsaw 3D
2 – Django Unchained
3 – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4 – Les Miserables
5 – Parental Guidance

Ada Films,

Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark Duplass, Mike Birbiglia

Jack (Mark Duplass) is depressed. He’s still mourning the death of his brother and can’t keep to shake it. Jack has been dating his brother’s former girlfriend Iris (Emily Blunt) and needless to say that is quite complicated. Not sure if his relationship is going anywhere and feeling guilty about being attracted to his dead brother’s girl, he’s floundering. Iris is pretty busy, so she sends him to stay at her father’s vacation home on an island. Jack arrives to spend some time alone and get his thoughts together only to learn that Iris’ sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) is also staying at the house. They decide to stay together, knowing nothing will happen, but after many drinks, both are very drunk and they end up in a drunken tryst that complicates things even more. There is much more to the story, but it’s enough to say that the following days are very revealing on everyone’s part as they try to keep the secret, then decide to bring it all out into the open.

This movie was a good bit better than I ever expected it to be. I chose to watch it because I’ve been pretty impressed with Emily Blunt in a string of movies since “The Devil Wears Prada” when I first noticed her as a pretty good actress holding her own with both Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. But this is a whole different type of movie. It’s a character study as each of the characters has ultimate motives that are quite different from each other, and nothing here is simply black and white. There’s a good deal of humor and some really funny moments, but mostly it’s grinding through the truth and confession portion of finding out who each of these people are and what they really stand for. It’s a small movie, with very little change in location, mostly shot in the vacation home on the island, but the characters are the stars. The movie is definitely not boring, and the lack of real action is filled up with self evaluation and a little introspective look at each of the characters. It’s a romantic comedy/drama with good characters, good acting, and a really decent script to work with. No car chases or suspense, unless you count waiting to see if Iris is going to find out or not, but plenty of character development to keep it interesting. I enjoyed this little film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog