Movie Review - A Million Ways to Die in the West

A Million Ways to Die in the West **½ (R) The best spoof of westerns was probably Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, which remains one of the most outrageously hilarious films of all time. For an anti-western comedy, the leading example is probably the so-so Wagons East, in which Richard Lewis and other disenchanted pioneers hired John Candy to lead a train eastward - back to the relatively civilized regions from whence they’d migrated, overcoming obstacles created by the era’s robber barons, guarding the profitability of exploiting the romanticized version of expansion against the feared domino effect of their retreat deterring others from trying to settle these frontiers for them.

Somewhere between the two, in both tone and quality, lies this offering from the prolific wit of Seth MacFarlane. He co-wrote, directed and stars as a sheep rancher in 1882 Arizona, who comes up short on all the usual traits of frontier heroes - cowardly and unable to even manage his small herd of second-rate (for the time and place) mammals. His girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him after he chickens out of a showdown while the whole town is watching. She promptly hooks up with a smarmy local merchant (Neil Patrick Harris). Just as he’s about to give up on the whole concept of living in such a lousy, dangerous part oof the country, he finds surprising support from a newcomer Charlize Theron), unaware of her marriage to the meanest outlaw in the territory (Liam Neeson). Other pals include an equally wimpy clerk (Giovanni Ribisi), and the hooker (Sarah Silverman) he adores.

MacFarlane serves up plenty of the grossout sight gags and cultural potshots we’ve come to expect from his animated TV series (Family Guy, American Dad and the late, but not all-that-lamented spinoff, The Cleveland Show). The usual digs at celebs are missing, since the action is occurring over a century ago, but some of that loss is balanced by a handful of hilarious cameos.

As an admitted fan of his work, perhaps my expectations were too high. He opens with stunning Monument Valley vistas we recognize from a slew of John Ford and other oater epics, over a score that evokes the best of Elmer Bernstein and Dimitri Tiomkin’s contributions to the genre. But there aren’t enough laughs or other script assets for the two hours of footage that survived the final edits. MacFarlane the live-action movie star is not up to par with the rest of the hats he wears. This product will periodically please his followers, but not create many new ones. (5/30/14)