Like Seth MacFarlane? You'll Like Ted

Seth MacFarlane's first feature film is, well, pretty much what you'd expect from the Family Guy guy: a lot of bathroom humor and not a lot of story. So is it worth seeing? That depends on your tastes:

• "Tolerant amusement is pretty much the best this harmless little picture is able to manage, even though it strives for obnoxious hilarity," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. MacFarlane "has no particular visual knack, little interest in storytelling, and nothing better to do with his naughty bear besides stuff him into a soft, sentimental comedy that seems almost proud of its lack of wit or conviction."

• The Globe and Mail is more forgiving: "As unabashedly idiotic movie comedies go, Ted goes fairly well," the paper notes. "It’s rude, crude, lewd, and often funny. In other words, it’s a lot like MacFarlane’s animated show transferred to the big screen in a live-action story."
• At Newsday, Rafer Guzman sees "a very real heart" to the film. "This may sound silly, but the two humans and one bear make a pretty convincing dramatic triangle."
• Heart? David Haglund firmly disagrees. "There’s a cruel edge to so much of MacFarlane’s comedy—the quintessential MacFarlane joke may be a punch in the face," he writes in Slate.

(More Seth MacFarlane stories.)