Ted
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 29, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle SmithJun 29, 2012
The surprise of Ted is that it goes for honest Spielbergian wonder, too, and even earns some tears. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 28, 2012
Ted is really a rather sweet examination of loyalty, friendship, and love. Wahlberg and Kunis are charming together (though not exactly in a Cary Grant / Audrey Hepburn kind of way), and both manage to play this thing - at least the challenges-of-a-serious-relationship part of this thing - straight. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 27, 2012
The funniest movie character so far this year is a stuffed teddy bear. And the best comedy screenplay so far is Ted, the saga of the bear's friendship with a 35-year-old manchild. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 1, 2012
It's often convulsively funny. Read full review
80
Total FilmTony HorkinsJul 23, 2012
A fabulous first live-action effort, combining R-rated hilarity with skilled storytelling as it slips some real heart into the stuffing of a toy bear. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 1, 2012
In a universe of Hollywood comedies that seem determined to insult the audience and pander to the basest form of post-adolescent fantasy, Ted feels almost sophisticated. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 1, 2012
Ted runs out of invention in its last act (the bear is coveted by a chillingly deadpan sociopath, played by Giovanni Ribisi, and the villain's fat son), but I can't think of a better movie to see if you're male and want to get high and relive your idiot adolescence. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJul 1, 2012
MacFarlane gets an impressive amount of comic mileage from having a plush toy talk like a Boston low-life, though for gut laughs nothing compares to the brutal, frantic, and completely wordless fight scene between Wahlberg and his little buddy in a cheap hotel room. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsJun 28, 2012
This is no-holds-barred humor of the finest, grossest kind, centered around the theme of arrested development. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondJun 25, 2012
Movies don't get much funnier than Ted. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 23, 2012
Not too many films serve up laughs that just keep on rolling with regularity from beginning to end, but Seth MacFarlane's directorial debut does so and without any feeling of strain. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 28, 2012
Ted may not be profound or deft, but when it hits the sweet-sour spot, which it does regularly, it can win you over. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 28, 2012
Ted is essentially a one-joke movie. Okay, it's a very funny joke, but it's still only one joke. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 28, 2012
A crass, foul-mouthed, mostly hilarious, surprisingly sentimental bromance. Read full review
75
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 28, 2012
One of the tricks of Ted -- perhaps its smartest one -- is that everyone, not just John, knows the bear can talk. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 28, 2012
It's hysterically, gut-bustingly funny. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJun 27, 2012
Ted is never stronger than when Wahlberg and MacFarlane's Ted hang out, riff, and luxuriate in an easy friendship, but as it lurches to a conclusion, Ted unwisely devotes far too much of its time to a plot it would be better off ignoring. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJun 26, 2012
Most of Ted eludes description, analysis and explanation. You just have to hold onto your own certifiable sense of humor and let Mr. MacFarlane take you where he wants to go. Then get out of the way and enjoy it. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJun 28, 2012
The comic targets run the gamut - race, religion, relationships, reality, etc. While nothing is sacred, the sacrilege comes with just enough sweetness to offset the salt. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Staff (Not credited)Jun 28, 2012
As unabashedly idiotic movie comedies go, Ted goes fairly well. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 28, 2012
This bromance with rapid-fire quips, however, is undermined by unoriginal scenarios and a long, drawn-out chase scene. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 29, 2012
Unapologetically raw -- and very funny. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJun 28, 2012
True chemistry is hard to find. And by some stroke of movie magic - or sheer skill - Wahlberg and the bear make a pretty great team. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearJun 26, 2012
MacFarlane may need to jettison his adolescent belief that cramming every moment with two winks and a zinger exponentially ups the gutbusting, however, before he can hit his real artistic stride. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJun 27, 2012
And yet. And yet, Gawd help me, the always surprising Mark Wahlberg throws himself into his thespian adventure with such radiant wacko energy, so full of Boston beans, that Ted is also kind of, well, impressively nuts. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJun 28, 2012
For all of its transgressive plush-toy sex and screw-'em humor, the plot is pretty standard stuff. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 28, 2012
You can find this clever, or you can find it lazy, and this is why MacFarlane is the biggest mixed blessing in contemporary TV comedy: He is both. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 28, 2012
Ted is more of an idea than a movie, a string of jokes and homages starring a cartoon and some game actors whose performances are destined to be enjoyed in chunks, rarely from start to finish, during momentary breaks of channel surfing on late-night TV. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 27, 2012
So what's not to love? For starters, there's the inescapable fact that Ted is, no matter how you stuff it, yet another man-child buddy movie – and all that that implies. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 27, 2012
The one-note joke plays out longer and better than you might expect, at least for a while. But not forever. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 23, 2012
A predictably irreverent satire that's sweeter and, sadly, less funny than you might expect. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 28, 2012
Ted is often hilarious, sometimes sweet and, in the spirit of "Family Guy," consistently raunchy. Yet it's seriously overextended and, as the premise wears ever thinner, frantically overproduced. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 28, 2012
The sin of Ted is not that it is offensive but that it is boring, lazy and wildly unoriginal. If Triumph the Insult Comic Dog ever got a hold of Ted, there would be nothing left but a pile of fluff and a few scraps of fur. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonJun 26, 2012
It's dispiriting enough to witness Kunis still waiting for a comic lead role worthy of her. But the usually nimble Wahlberg - who at least has one great moment rattling off "white-trash girls' names" - suffers the most, playing second fiddle to a knee-high Gund knockoff. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe HollemanJun 29, 2012
Ted does not only break before it ends. It snaps back so violently that it very well may knock out of your mind any recollection that the movie is fairly entertaining for about 30 minutes. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 28, 2012
Eventually MacFarlane's formula -- consisting of filthy, ethnically offensive jokes, scatological humor, tacky pop culture references and random cameos -- begins to wear thin. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineNick SchagerJun 26, 2012
Seth MacFarlane's comedic modus operandi is to shock with outrageousness and pander with TV and movie citations via one non sequitur after another, a strategy that leads to a few laughs but nothing approaching lasting humor. Read full review
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