Ted (Seth MacFarlane, 2012)

It's a reasonably universal constant that TV comics will come up short when crossing over to features and MacFarlane ventures a step further beyond his comfort zone by having real live actors carry this. Or so it would seem at first glance. But of course the remove from Family Guy is very slight: the potty-mouthed layabout teddy bear is just a composite of Brian and Peter Griffin via Wilfred, right down to the non-stop perishable pop culture references, and the other lead characters nigh on as infantile. Since it isn't actually a cartoon, there's also a homily about learning to accept who you are or somesuch piffle, but at least here you know it's meant to be disregarded. On the whole, it chugs along without a care in the world, openly ransacking things which were already parodic first time around, including the whole disco scene from Airplane, and then wraps things up insouciantly having provided a fair few rib-ticklers, much like any average episode of MacFarlane's TV output. This simple forthrightness makes it superior to the vast majority of laddish Hollywood comedies, and is at the same time no particular reason to head out to the cinema either, except to wind up slavering American Christian fundamentalists.

6/10