A Million Ways To Die In The West suffers from "Full Filmmaker Freedom Fatality.." a disease in which a writer and/or director has a huge hit and then decides that means he or she can do whatever they want in their next film. Sometimes this works out. Christopher Nolan had a huge hit with Memento and then did the excellent Insomnia. Quentin Tarantino blew people's minds with Reservoir Dogs and then once again proceeded to do so with Pulp Fiction. However, there are times in which the alliterative phrase I have just used is accurate because the fatality in the phrase is the death of or at least feeling of the death of that person's career. The newest western parody from Seth MacFarlane, who had a huge hit with Ted falls into the latter category. This is a film that has a really solid premise but suffers not only from the fact that MacFarlane gave way too much away in the trailers but because there's not a lot here that's at all funny. I will admit I laughed out loud a total of five times during the film. One involves a line about a terrible disease, another about the way in which a carnival game is set up, one involves a sight that no one has seen before, one involves a prank in which the hero of the film is the victim and the last involves an attempted theft of an article of clothing. While this may be more times than I will ever laugh at another Adam Sandler film, I was sitting in the auditorium feeling bad for me and the rest of the audience because Neighbors was playing right next door and that is a fantastic comedy. This is not to say I'm comparing MacFarlane's comedy to the Seth Rogen-Zac Efron comedy. This is just to say that it seems like a waste to see this film when there are funnier things playing in theaters right now.
The film stars MacFarlane (who also wrote and directed, in case I didn't make that clear) as Albert...a cowardly sheep farmer who lives in Arizona where the term "old time" would be more accurate for this review if I spelled it "old thyme." After being dumped by his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried,) Albert meets Anna (Charlize Theron,) a mysterious woman who rolls into town. Albert is not aware that Anna is secretly the wife of master gunfighter Clinch (Liam Neeson.) All the while, Albert is trying to win Louise and take her away from mustachioed Foy (Neil Patrick Harris.)
Like I said...I found five things legitimately funny in this film. Also, whenever Harris shows up...I got a warm feeling knowing that he would at least be entertaining. However, the film revolves around Albert, who is played in such a bland way by MacFarlane that watching the "Family Guy" and "American Dad" creator try to spew lines is more of a test to not fall asleep than anything. Also, the running gag involving Albert's buddy Edward (Giovanni Ribisi) and his prostitute girlfriend Ruth (Sarah Silverman) gets old after the first time it is told. This is made much worse by the fact that MacFarlane feels the need to tell that joke about 20 times. Theron does admittedly do a pretty good job of making MacFarlane's acting kind of interesting simply by playing off him but by then it's too little too late. Meanwhile, Neeson and Seyfried are given absolutely nothing to do. MacFarlane simply writes them as people who show up, moving in and out of the shot when it's necessary for them to do so.
A Million Ways To Die In The West has a few very funny bits. However, those funny bits are in place of around 50 lame and sometimes unbearable bits that fall completely flat. There are especially way too many jokes where someone famous shows up for a cameo and just the fact that they showed up is supposed to be inherently funny. MacFarlane's not the first one to make that mistake but filmmakers need to start understanding that a familiar face showing up is only funny if they are given something funny to do or show up in a funny situation. The two hour running time also hurts the film significantly, making what is supposed to be a comedy feel much more like a prison sentence. MacFarlane obviously has talent in him as seen in his previous work. However, it would be best for him to go back to modern day where he's able to make pop culture references and modern day humor galore because this is just boring.
(1 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for strong crude and sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug material)
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