Film Review: “A Million Ways to Die In the West”
Photo Credit: Universal
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Be forewarned: if you’re at all reverential about John Wayne and his Good Ol’ West, then this is not the movie for you. If you, like me, enjoy the madcap, socially ironic and politically charged humor of Family Guy, then you stand a good chance of enjoying it.
And that’s because Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West is really just a very long episode of Family Guy, told with live action actors and with MacFarlane at the center of the story. This story of a wimpy guy with a heart of gold is comic fodder for anyone who has empathized with a lovable loser – well, “loser” in the winningest sense of the word.
While A Million Ways to Die in the West is entertaining enough with some hilarious sequences intermittently sprinkled throughout (hello, Sarah Silverman, who hits a knock out playing the town whore engaged to the dumbest virgin on the planet), it is definitely not in the same league as the screamingly funny Ted.
MacFarlane does well enough in the leading role, but he isn’t quite movie star material. He carries the film, but it’s practically carried off by Charlize Theron as his kick ass love interest . . . and then virtually dominated by the hysterical turn from Neil Patrick Harries who plays the villain of the piece (sorry, Liam Neeson). Amanda Seyfried is wasted in a purely ornamental part as the ex-girlfriend.
It doesn’t always deliver the laughs it should, but it’s still quite enjoyable on its own terms. Worth a chuckle or two.