Review of A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) by Trent G — 12 Jun 2017

This movie is like someone explaining why a joke is funny rather than telling it, the constant hook is that the old west is of course a treacherous and deadly, misfortune ridden place, instead of clever gags to get across this thin premise for a movie we have MacFarlane himself constantly telling us that it is a horrible place, and that bad shit happens, this movie was the moment when you realised that the guy cant actually write gags.

He sure can refrence a movie or tv show you grew up with in the late 70's, 80's or 90's, like for example Cookie monster from Sesame Street being addicted to cookies like they are crack or Optimus Prime turning out to be jewish or the Griffin family bumping into the Goonies whilst in the sewer, which ends with Peter making Chunk do the truffle shuffle.

But he doesnt really write actual smart gags that are set up and pay off, he's not clever enough to do so, thats why the cutaway gags are so frequent in the show, he doesnt quite know how to weave the gags into the fabric of the shows plot so opts for cheap jokes along the lines of " hey look it's Charlie Brown, he's now a recovering drug addict".

It elicits a giggle sure, but when you rewatch anything made by MacFarlane , it begins to unravel, especially Family Guy, which once seemed so edgy and ingenious and now seems to rest on 80's nostalgia and pot shots aimed at anyone at all, hey lets have a dig at rape victims or Michael J Fox's Parkinson's disease, now im not against these type of digs, dark or bad taste comedy is the best, but whereas South Park for instance knows what it's aiming for and is smart when it trys to shock or confront you, Family Guy just goes for the cheap shots, it's the mark of a man who is using chintzy comedy subterfuge to mask how uninspired and unobservant he is.

The work from the man that turned the tide for me was this dreadful wasteland of laughs, for starters MacFarlane himself makes for a very unappealing lead, with his dead eyes and milky, bland face and aura of self satisfied smugness.

He aslo wastes the fuck out of a great cast, Charlize Theron comes out unscathed and with her dignity, because shes a G, and if she could survive Aeon Flux she can survive this, it helps that she is just about the only funny person on screen.

Sarah Silverman, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson and Neil Patrick Harris are given nothing amusing to do or say, even the usually sharp. shocking edge of Family Guy etc, is blunted massively. A piece of shit.