Seth MacFarlane shoots and misses - Reeling on "A Million Ways to Die in the West"

After sheep farmer Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) talks his way out of a gun fight, his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him for obnoxious Moustachery owner Foy (Neil Patrick Harris).  Albert tells best buddy Edward (Giovanni Ribisi) he's thinking of moving to San Francisco because there are "A Million Ways to Die in the West."

Cowriter (with "Ted's" Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild)/director Seth MacFarlane proved himself capable of making a raunchy feature comedy with 2012's "Ted."  What happened?  While his scenes with costar Charlize Theron as Anna, the mysterious sharpshooter who rides into town, are sweetly silly, the films over reliance on scatological humor is off putting while sheep puns and a saloon prostitute's lewd acts while otherwise saving herself for marriage (Sarah Silverman playing to her persona) grow repetitive.  The film does pick up in its last forty odd minutes (of a 117 minute running time) thanks to a "Rango" referencing Native American Indian drug-induced reverie, but even then it nosedives with a drawn out cliched gross out scene.  The film's most inventive running gag involves what must be a MacFarlane obsession with the classic stiff subjects of Old West photographs.

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http://www.reelingreviews.com/amillionwaystodieinthewest.htm