A Million Ways to Die in the West

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Sebastian

Seth MacFarlane's latest comedy and he finally gets to appear on screen instead of just voicing a character. An old school western underdog story as told through the veneer of modern eyes. MacFarlane's Albert is pretty much a man out of time. No one in the old west had teeth that white.

The whole setting is mainly an excuse for a series of jokes about the ridiculous harsh realities of the old west. There are some very funny gags along with some very juvenile sex talk (bless you Sarah Silverman) and plenty of silly potty humour. A few through away cameos as well...

The whole film really is rather silly, which can make the moments of sincerity a little jarring but MacFarlane and Charlize Theron make it work rather well. The main thrust of the plot and their romance is pretty typical stuff but it's fine as a base to build the gags around.

For all the talk of how terrible living on the frontier is, the film presents its golden vistas and moonlit nights in beautiful clean colours. As is the convention for comedies, bright, happy and colourful is the look here. I'm of two minds about this. One the one hand, covering the characters in dirt and grime and roughing up look a bit would fit far better with story and the location. But no-one is coming to see this for authenticity and the cinematography is really very beautiful.

I didn't enjoy this as much as Ted, ironically this film feels more puerile than a film about a talking teddy bear that takes drugs and has sex. But there's still plenty of fun to be had here.

Incidentally there are a few things in that trailer that aren't in the film, I wonder what happened to that hot air balloon sequence?