Review of A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) by Leigh H — 26 Dec 2014

As you should all be aware by now with previous review sites I've run, I'm never afraid to say something the way I see it. When I reviewed "TED" I pretty much said that if you like shit and piss jokes told by Brian Griffin of "Family Guy" fame. Then you would have loved it.

I'm afraid it's the same shit recycled with Seth MacFarlane's latest attempt as well. MWTDITW looked great by the trailers that were running, good enough for me to actually want to see it, knowing how I felt about "Ted" with a hope of it succeeding where I felt "Ted" failed. Once again though almost all of the best bits of the film have been seen due to the trailers.

The story is a tale as old as time, nerdy loser boy Albert (Seth MacFarlane) is in love with gold digging snotty girl Louise (Amanda Seyfried) but doesn't see past her gold-digging agenda, snotty girl dumps loser boy for rich business man Foy,(Neil Patrick Harris) Loser boy ready to give up everything when he meets wild child gun tooting woman, Anna (Charlize Theron) Wild girl turns nerdy loser boy into better man with montage of gradual improvement shooting guns and riding horses, days role on and nerdy boy end ups falling in love with the wild child but wild child is keeping a secret, boy ends up fighting for his life, snotty girl comes back to make up with boy after proving himself a man, nerdy boy walks away with wild child. (Something along those lines anyway) Throw in some very weird cameo's both during the film and credits, add a nasty Western outlaw Clinch (Liam Neeson) and you pretty much have the film rolled into a nice but very predictable and unoriginal western film with tasteless and at times unnecessary humour. Giovani Ribisi (Edward) and Sarah Silverman (Ruth) had some very awkward dialogue for some pretty awkward scenes which got more cringes and shout outs via the audience. A lot of falling over and slap stick innuendo jokes more than make up 90% of the film. I feel that yes he wanted to make the next big western comedy "Blazing Saddles" style but falls very short, at least he had the fart jokes though!

The cinema we went to was filled with older than average patrons which really surprised us but soon realised they had no idea what they were actually about to see. I guess they just expected a spaghetti style western so hearing them moan and gag at some of what they were witnessing gave me more of a giggle than anything else.

Don't get me wrong here, the film has its place and does work to some extent, just for me on a personal level I wasn't at all impressed, I found it to be very cheesy and exhausting but there were others in the cinema who really loved what Seth had delivered. I thought Charlize Theron was great in her role, and the times I was laughing was usually because she was... I'm not 100% certain but it seemed very real and not at all scripted when she burst out into a fits of laughter during certain scenes, so I guess I have to give Seth some kind of credit for being a funny man.

All I can say is if you loved "Ted" or really love "Family Guy" then you will most likely really enjoy this, in saying that, I crack up at "Family Guy" so each to their own I guess.

2/5 BanShee screams.

X.

#Amillionwaystodieinthewest.