A Million Ways To Die In The West -- Jon Petre

In recent years, the Western genre seems to be trying to make a comeback--what with Cowboys and Aliens in 2011, The Lone Ranger last year, and Django Unchained before that--not to mention the (thankfully still!) upcoming The Hateful Eight--and A Million Ways was a humorous send-up of the genre, in the spirit of Blazing Saddles. I for one embrace both the re-emergence of the genre, and its parodies. Though it wasn't as funny or entertaining as Ted, A Million Ways To Die In The West was still a decent comedy.

Seth MacFarlane plays a sheepish (I think the pun was intended) farmer of sheep, who avidly hates just about every aspect of life on the 1800's frontier. His girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried)  has just broken up with him, and he is suitably depressed--with both her and his life--until the arrival of Anna (Charlize Theron), who vows to help him get back with Lousie by making her jealous, culminating in a shoot-out with Lousie's new boyfriend, Foy (Neil Patrick Harris)...

Alright, so the plot's formulaic, and it wasn't nearly as interesting as the plot of Ted (not that Ted's plot was spectacular; it was just different) nor was it as sharply-cut, but that didn't take from the humour. I think Seth was going for something more like Blazing Saddles, or Airplane in the film--sure, it's a bit stupid (actually, very stupid in places) but that's on purpose. If anything, it allows the comedy more freedom; they can reference things that, if it were more serious, would ruin it--like a cameo from Doc Brown, or Django. So, if you go to see this, bear that in mind. If you're expecting something, well, more serious, this is Seth MacFarlane.

Who would trust a mustache like that?

There was, surprisingly, quite a large variety of humour; ranging from crude fart jokes to gags about how the value of money has changed ("Take your hat off, boy--that's a dollar!"). Many comedies these days seem to pander to the lowest common denominator (cough cough, Adam Sandler, cough cough) and while A Million Ways to Die in the West does do this with the fart jokes and the poop gags, it blends it very effectively with more niche humour--for example, the mustache song. It wasn't brilliant everywhere, but where it worked, it worked well. I feel myself saying that quite often nowadays.

However, Neil Patrick Harris and Liam Niesson were barely in it. I couldn't help but feel that there should've been more character involvement and development for both of them, especially Liam Niesson; he only made a proper appearance at the beginning and the end. But supporting characters like Edward and Ruth (Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman) saved the plot from being solely about Albert (Seth) and Anna, which seems to be more and more common with Hollywood nepotism on the rise.

The weak plot and the slightly chaotic humour stop A Million Ways to Die in the West from going anywhere near a five, and it is very different from Ted; although ridiculous elements are carried over. It's more a case of whether you like Seth MacFarlane or not with this one. Still, I personally find his style hilarious, and so I'm going to give A Million Ways to Die in the West a four of five. A low four, mind.

4/5

Written By Jon Petre