Ted - 2012 - 3 Stars

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane
Director:  Seth MacFarlane

I will defend seasons 1-3 of Family Guy to anyone willing to listen.  Indeed, even as the show was canceled, my friends and I watched pirated episodes on RealPlayer, and it was likely my generation that saved the show from the ashbin of TV history.  It's now one of the longest-running shows of all time, and I have absolutely no interest in watching another episode of it.  Still, the point is, I will defend the first 3 seasons as being quite funny, even as Family Guy's sense of humor failed to evolve over the years (and, indeed, regressed).

So what could I expect out of Seth MacFarlane's whacked-out, demented mind when freed of the shackles of television?  Well, I got pretty much what I expected - a few solid jokes, some racism and misogyny that should've likely ended up on the cutting room floor (somehow it's worse in live action), but overall a watchable film.  Of course the film is about a man-child who cannot grow up and has to be dragged into adulthood by a woman, but the real triumph of the film is making Mila Kunis's character not a shrew or a buzzkill.