Year of Release: 2014
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman, Liam Neeson, Wes Studi, Christopher Hagen, Matt Clark, Evan Jones, Rex Linn, Aaron McPherson, Alex Borstein, Ralph Garman, John Aylward
Genre: Comedy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
After the unexpected commercial success of "Ted" in 2012, alongside the continued success of his shows "Family Guy" and "American Dad!", Seth MacFarlane returned to the big screen with another comedy, this time around focused on the old west, but still with his very own perspective and brand of humor. The narrative focuses on the story of Albert Stark, who is a sheep farmer in the town of Old Stump, in Arizona in 1882. Louise his girlfriend, decides to break up with him due to his lack of backbone, and eventually decides to move to San Francisco, as he firmly believes the frontier is far too dangerous and it's not a good locale for him. While Albert is mourning the death of his relationship, and Louise's quick attachment to Foy, a local merchant who has a business catering to people with mustaches, the infamous outlaw Clinch Leatherwood dispatches his wife Anna and one of his right-hand men, Lewis, to Old Stump. Arriving as siblings, Lewis quickly gets into trouble by killing the son of the preacher, whereas Anna takes a shine to Albert, and his snarky sense of humor. Foy and Albert have an encounter at the county fair, and out of spite, Albert challenges Foy to a duel, even though he doesn't have a gun and doesn't know how to shoot. Anna decides to teach/train him for a week, and during that time the two get closer. Prior to the date of the duel, there's a dance in town, and Anna spikes Foy's drink with a laxative, which drains him before the duel even takes place. However during that same day, Clinch arrives in town, furious to know his wife had kissed a local man whose identity he demands to know.
The success of "Ted" which generated a less successful sequel and more recently a TV series, opened the doors for Seth MacFarlane to further expand his brand of humor into narrative films. However the rough reviews and even poorer commercial showings for "A Million Ways to Die in the West" curbed his prolific output, that has remained steady, but solely for the small screen. The film has an interesting premise, in the sense that it brings his modern type of humor and irreverence to the Old West, however and unlike what Mel Brooks so smartly did with "Blazing Saddles", Seth MacFarlane doesn't know what to do with the genre and its problematic clichés (the treatment of Women, minorities, racial issues and so on), preferring instead to essentially bring his vision, his jokes and his insights, which are visible on all his TV shows, to this film. There is only a thinly veiled idea of characters in this film, and they all basically spew out jokes around sex, bodily fluids, and the gotcha comedy gag of the entire film, the concept that basically at that time living in the frontier was basically asking to be killed at any moment. Part of the problem is that the film never truly builds situations or develops much of a scenario around these characters: they basically exist to support Albert's conundrum (an intellectual funny man in the Old West), and his deluge of jokes on everything that is taking place. The film feels like the Seth MacFarlane show on the Old West with a fantastic cast of guest stars, all of whom feel underserved and underused. The film does manage to have a few good moments, most of which involve Sarah Silverman and Giovanni Ribisi's characters, but they too are nothing but a blip in a film that ultimately feels undernourished and underdeveloped. Special kudos go out to Charlize Theron and Amanda Seyfried, both of whom are excellent performers in their own right, who sadly don't have much to do in this feature (talk about not knowing how to write women's roles), but still bring an air of lightness and easiness whenever they're onscreen. The technical team is competent, particularly Stephen J. Lineweaver's production design and Cindy Evans' costumes. It's a mediocre vehicle for a talented comedian, who should have sat and developed this material for a while longer.
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