★★☆☆☆
29 May 2014
This article is a review of A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST.
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“Hate can move mountains,” Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) to Anna (Charlize Theron)
FAMILY GUY/AMERICAN DAD creator MacFarlane has botched this comedy-western. Wearing too many hats perhaps (director, writer, producer), with the least well-fitting, live action star, the clunker dragging down proceedings. His lead protagonist, Albert, at one point asks a crowd, of the scene-stealing Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), “How is that funny?” Exactly Seth, exactly. From the laugh-free trailer to a movie that runs nearly two hours, scraping together a small handful of chortles, where was the quality control?
FAMILY GUY/AMERICAN DAD creator MacFarlane has botched this comedy-western. Wearing too many hats perhaps (director, writer, producer), with the least well-fitting, live action star, the clunker dragging down proceedings. His lead protagonist, Albert, at one point asks a crowd, of the scene-stealing Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), “How is that funny?” Exactly Seth, exactly. From the laugh-free trailer to a movie that runs nearly two hours, scraping together a small handful of chortles, where was the quality control?
Fans of MacFarlane’s feature debut, TED, maybe scratching their heads at what went wrong. Purveying button-pushing humour, the wrangler of solid japes, for all the outlandish comments, never has really troubled the pinnacle of the form: Trey Parker and Matt Stone (SOUTH PARK, TEAM AMERICA, THE BOOK OF MORMON), a duo who soak their material in observational smarts. Overlooking dubious jokes is more likely to be carried out if you are rolling around in the aisles; and A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST is so leaden, it is as if a veil has dropped causing a reassessment of MacFarlane’s work.
The engaging badass that is Theron shines. Women are front and centre, given more parts than comedies usually allow, though... From the opening narration, via the sheriff (Rex Linn), we are told of an ugly portrait, “Hell, this was Miss America 1880. Holy sh*t!” to Louise (Amanda Seyfried) being simultaneously vacuous and callous, to Sarah Silverman’s game yet innocent hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Ruth, the whiff of disdain for anyone who isn’t MacFarlane mounts up. And not to put the boot in too savagely, he is the weakest acting link; a performance so brazen, an audience member in a different cinema might get the punchline. Fortunately, A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST has a population consisting of the likes of Liam Neeson, Giovanni Ribisi and Wes Studi.
Basically a banal rom-com formula, in at least an unusual setting, it is 1882 Arizona, John Wayne country. Life expectancy is supposedly 35 years old (though is any major cast member apart from Seyfried under that age?), a brutal, merciless place the frontier, where “everything that’s not you, wants to kill you”. Unflinching, over the top horror-esque maiming and despatching is sprinkled into the flimsy narrative; along with a coterie of flatulence and penis supposed rib-ticklers. Crime against humour can be found immediately, as Albert enters into the frame and pratfalls, and then face-plants several times more; reminding of the bizarre reoccurrence of actors stepping in dog mess during Robert Altman’s PRÊT-À-PORTER.
Okay, so the ‘If You’ve Only Got a Moustache’ song is toe-tapping, and the direction and fight/dance choreography have a zing, but those, and the top-notch cameos, can’t rescue a comedy dead on arrival.