Movie Review- The Watch

Dan and I saw The Watch, a few weeks ago, the same weekend that we saw Ted. We actually ended up watching Ted first, on the recommendation of the teenager working the ticket counter at the Pacific Theaters, because "Who likes movies about Aliens?". Yes, I know that taking the advice of a teen movie worker, probably wasn't our shining moment, but Ted was okay.

The Watch isn't a great movie, but I found it to be a lot funnier than Ted. Unlike in Ted, the humor isn't exclusively crude. I think that the cast and interplay between them is what made the movie fun to watch. They clearly enjoyed themselves making this movie and that made me go along for the ride. I love Ben Stiller, even though he makes a lot of dumb comedies. He never fails to make me laugh.

This movie is a dumb comedy, but there are worse in this genre. It doesn't need to be seen in theaters, but it's worth a rental. The aliens are surprisingly well executed.

I loved the bit where Stiller's character is trying to get together a neighborhood watch. It really shows the honest apathy and weirdness that happens when you try to get a bunch of strangers together for a cause, everyone out with their own agenda. Good characters ( even though Vince Vaughn is playing the same guy he always plays) and funny stuff.

Movie Review- Ted

Seth Macfarlane had a good idea with Ted, but failed with the execution. It just wasn't funny. I expect crude humor with Macfarlane, but this was just too much. I felt like Macfarlane was trying to one up himself with all of the dialogue between Ted (voiced by Macfarlane) and John (played by Mark Wahlberg). It was like when you see two comedians or anyone who thinks they are funny, having a conversation and it's just joke after joke with nothing meaningful being said. It was as if Macfarlane was having a conversation with himself and all of the jokes were old, but he thought that he was being hilarious. Meh.

The plot is entirely predictable and transparent. Although I loved Giovanni Ribisi as the creepy guy, his storyline was so obvious that it was painful to watch it play out. All of the attention was clearly paid to unfunny jokes and not coming up with a creative plot.

The actors were all fine, but I could not stand Wahlberg's character, John. As a kid, John is awkward and can't make friends. He transitions into adulthood where he is still a child and can't seem to ever make a decision for himself. His self esteem is so in the gutter that it was hard to either like him or feel sympathy towards him. I could not buy that Lori ( played by Mila Kunis) would fall in love with him.

They did a good job with the physical look of Ted and his interactions with the actors. I liked the 80's references, some funny, some silly.

The movie may have been a bit better if the trailers had given less away. A lot of the funnier bits were in the trailer and that killed laughs in the theater. This isn't a great movie, but I would have enjoyed it much more, if I had not seen the traile