Crude & Cuddly

Review: Ted

Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the popular Family Guy, had originally planned the story of a teddy bear coming to life as a television show. Yet when the opportunity arose for MacFarlane to write, produce, and direct his very first full length movie, he turned to Ted.

This proved to be a phenomenal decision, as an R-rated film allows Ted to go where a prime-time television show cannot. The result pays off so much that Ted is easily one of the two best comedies of the year (the other being 21 Jump Street).

Ted is a teddy bear, wished to life by young child John Bennett. “It’s a Christmas miracle. You’re just like the baby Jesus!” John’s mom exclaims. Yeah, but Ted's and Jesus's 30s are very different.

Some 20 years later, John and Ted’s youthful innocence is lost, as John and Ted have grown up into irresponsible pot-smokers living together with part-time jobs. Somehow, John has managed to land a smokin’ hot girlfriend, Lori, but as his bromance with Ted threatens his romance with Lori, John is forced to choose between his “GF” and his “BFF.”

The bromance film is a familiar story (ie: I Love You, Man), but the novelty of one of the “bros” as a living toy makes the plot feel new and fresh. Then consider that this teddy bear, often a symbol of innocence and joy, lives for getting drunk, high, and laid and constantly spews out vulgarity in a thick Bostonian accent. The film constantly surprises us by always letting Ted do the unexpected. A no-holds-barred brawl is intense, but also hilarious, since one of the fighters is a teddy bear.

Ted and Mike Cash In

Weekend Recap: 6/29 - 7/01/2012

Normally filled with remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, reinterpretations, and adaptations, the box office had a great weekend as three original films led the way. (Although they won’t be kings for long, as The Amazing Spider-Man (review here) comes out Tuesday.)

Ted (review coming soon) came out on top with $54.4 million, making Universal the only studio to have three $50 million+ opening weekend movies this year. And it may have all been in $1 bills, but Magic Mike (review likely never coming) also did well, grossing $39.1 million. Brave (review here), in its second week of release, brought in $34.1 million.

Tyler Perry has brought the Madea franchise mainstream, bringing in some more widely known supporting actors and releasing Madea’s Witness Protection (review coming soon) in the summer, to the tune of $25.4 million, giving it a higher per-venue average than Brave. That number is slightly better than the previous series entry Madea’s Big Happy Family ($25.1 million).

Madagascar 3 (review here) continues to perform well, taking in another $11.8 million, while Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (review here) sales plummeted, as it earned only $6 million in its second week.

Moonrise Kingdom (review coming soon) expanded into 854 theaters, where it grossed $4.9 million. The rest of the Top Ten films weren’t far behind as Prometheus (review here), Snow White and the Huntsman (review here), and Marvel’s The Avengers (review here) each also saw figures above $4 million. (If you consider Prometheus a part of the Alien franchise, then it is now the highest grossing entry of the series.)

Meanwhile, People Like Us (review coming soon) bombed opening weekend with a measly $4.3 million, with a per-location average of $2,070.

Here’s a snapshot of the Top Ten Weekend Films domestically:

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Theater Average	Total Gross
1	Ted	$54.4 million	$16,800	$54.4 million
2	Magic Mike	$39.1 million	$13,353	$39.1 million
3	Brave	$34.1 million	$8,187	$131.8 million
4	Madea’s Witness Protection	$25.4 million	$11,749	$25.4 million
5	Madagascar 3	$11.8 million	$3,187	$180 million
6	Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter	$6 million	$1,932	$29 million
7	Moonrise Kingdom	$4.93 million	$5,769	$18.5 million
8	Prometheus	$4.92 million	$2,522	$118.3 million
9	Snow White and the Huntsman	$4.5 million	$1,925	$145.7 million
10	Marvel’s The Avengers	$4.4 million	$2,516	$606.5 million

“With Great Power…”

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

“…comes great responsibility.”

While that famous line is unfortunately never used in The Amazing Spider-Man, it is certainly a theme that applies to filmmakers when handling characters that are so widely known and loved by millions; the filmmakers have a responsibility to do the character justice.

Of course, the original Spider-Man trilogy only started 10 years ago and the last entry was only five years ago, so right from the start, a remake coming out so soon threatened to trivialize the franchise, rather than revitalize it.

In fact, many questioned whether the series needed to be rejuvenated at all. Director Sam Raimi had earned the trust of fans with his original Spider-Man trilogy, even if the third film was a bit of a stumble. You can partially blame the studio, Sony, for that; they were the ones who forced Raimi to cram the film with three villains. But few would say that Spider-Man 3 ruined the franchise. A well-crafted Spider-Man 4, which was the original plan, could have easily gotten the series back on track.

So why the remake? Well, as is usually the case, the deciding factor was money. Within the budget for a fourth film, the salaries for Sam Raimi and actors Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst would have easily cleaned out a cool $100 million, right from the start. New, up-coming stars are cheaper.

Plus, when Sony purchased the film rights to Spider-Man from Marvel, they legally agreed that if they did not produce a film every few years, the rights would revert back to Marvel. So we’ll be getting Spider-Man films long after they’ve outstayed their welcome. (The film rights issue is also why we’ll likely never see Spider-Man in an Avengers film.)

So, really, a remake, while perhaps not necessary, was inevitable. So if we had to have a Spider-Man remake, The Amazing Spider-Man is a decent one to have.