At the cinema: Ted 2
Three years ago, Mark Wahlberg and a trash-talking, pot-smoking, daytime-drinking teddy bear proved the comedy hit of the summer, grossing more than half a billion dollars at cinemas worldwide. The Ted character was too loveable to end it there, so writer-director Seth Macfarlane is back for more, presenting a story about the two Thunder Buddies For Life facing a legal battle against the US when Ted finds himself declared by the courts a non-person. Laughs are slow at the start, as Ted marries his beloved co-worker Tami-Lynn, attempts to have a baby via artificial insemination and/or adoption, and then finds his marriage annulled, employment terminated, citizenship rescinded. The film moves up a gear with the introduction of inexperienced, bong-toking lawyer Amanda Seyfriend, who submits to several jokes at the expense of her famously bulging eyes (as Ted puts it, she has “Give me the ring, my precious” eyes). It’s not as funny as the first one, of course, so you could just stay in and watch Ted – it’s on Channel 4 on Saturday at 9pm.
On DVD: The Boy Next Door
The phrase “guilty pleasure” gets bandied around too much. In our world, Magic Mike and its sequel are not guilty pleasures – they are plain excellent movies and we make no excuses for liking them. The Boy Next Door, on the other hand, really is a guilty pleasure. Defiantly trashy, intermittently sexy, increasingly ludicrous – it takes a certain kind of genius to come up with dialogue and situations this corny. Jennifer Lopez stars as a schoolteacher and single mum whose teenage son befriends the hot young man (Ryan Guzman, from the last two Step Up movies) who’s moved in next door. After the pair get hot and heavy, and he hacks the school’s computer system to transfer into a class she’s teaching, she backs off. Then the stalking and the craziness begins in earnest. Anyway, Ryan’s kinda cute, if you overlook the fact that he’s a murdering psychopath. Watch out for Ryan giving J-Lo a “first edition” of The Iliad, Homer’s Ancient Greek poem which first saw written form around the eighth century BC.
On TV: Attack The Block (Friday, E4, 10.50pm)
Four years ago, this London-set sci-fi comedy arrived in our cinemas – the directorial debut of Joe Cornish, formerly mildly famous as one half of The Adam & Joe Show (it was on the telly). Next week, mega-budget Marvel flick Ant-Man opens worldwide, with Joe one of the credited screenwriters. December sees the release of the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens, and if you saw the first teaser trailer you’ll know that it stars John Boyega – who was the lead actor in Attack The Block. Two big reasons, in other words, to catch up with this smartly scripted, fresh and funny film about five teen hoodlums who turn out to be a lot more sympathetic than they first appear, as they rise to the challenge of repelling an alien invasion of their block. Luke Treadaway is also very funny in it, as a posh doof who comes to the council estate to buy weed – Luke went on to triumph on stage in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. As a talent incubator, Attack The Block deserves our attention – but it’s also a good film in its own right.