A Million Ways to Die in the West

"People die at the fair."

How much one will enjoy A Million Ways to Die in the West will depend on how much they enjoy crude humor. The film sets itself up to be a more contemporary Blazing Saddles. While it doesn't reach such lofty heights, I still found it to be a pretty amusing spoof of Westerns albeit one clearly made by Seth McFarlane, best known as the creator of Family Guy, American Dad and his previous film, Ted. 

Albert (played by Seth McFarlane, who also directed and co-wrote the film) is a fairly unsuccessful sheep farmer. He lives in a small, western town in 1880's Arizona. His girlfriend, Louise (played by Amanda Seyfried) has just dumped him. Despondent, he goes to the local saloon with his friend Edward (played by Giovanni Ribisi) and Edward's fiancee Ruth (played by Sarah Silverman). Things begin to look up when he meets the new girl in town, the tomboyish gunslinger Anna (played by Charlize Theron). The two bond after escaping the umpteenth bar fight. He tells her about his recent break-up with Louise after spotting her with a new beau, Foy (played by Neil Patrick Harris). Foy is the weaselly proprietor of the local mustache accessory and treatment shop (sure, why not?). Anna decides to accompany him to the local fair in an attempt to make Louise jealous. The plan backfires and in the heat of the moment Albert challenges Foy to a duel, despite having zero skill as a gunfighter. Foy eagerly accepts and the duel is set for the following week. 

Anna agrees to help Albert learn to shoot, which leads to an amusing western themed training montage as we see just how bad of a shot Albert is (he shoots a bottle at point blank range and still misses). During this, the two of them slowly fall in love with one another as would be expected in a plot like this. The film is also punctuated with frequent asides in which people die in horrible accidents, with Albert often pointing out how dangerous the West really is. Also lurking about is the very dangerous gunfighter, Clinch (played by Liam Neeson), looking to reunite with his wife, Anna.  

There is a lot to like about this film. There are plenty of jokes that worked for me throughout the film. They did a great job poking fun at the cliches of the genre and the time period itself. The film juxtaposes a modern sensibility against a Western setting as well (much of the dialogue, especially from Albert, is very contemporary) which I found amusing. The problem though is when the film descends into outright vulgarity, especially bowel functions, I just groaned rather than laughed and all I could think was, "Come on guys, you're better than this."  

McFarlane and Theron make a good pair and have some decent chemistry, which helps the movie and the two of them were probably the strongest asset. Ribisi was good as McFarlane's milquetoast best friend who doesn't mind that his fiancee is one of the town's most popular prostitutes (of course the two haven't slept together yet because they say they're waiting until they're married). Neeson makes for a genuinely intimidating villain and Harris is equally smarmy as McFarlane's romantic rival who gets a particularly nauseating comeuppance courtesy of Anna. The film also has a slew of cameos, some more recognizable than others, leaving the audience wondering, "Was that just..." (Yes it was). 

Overall, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a funny comedy and your ability to stick with it will be determined solely by if you can get past it's cruder moments. I laughed plenty, but at the same time, I wish it had aimed a bit higher at times. Like McFarlane's character, Albert, the film is scatter shot at times. That said, enough of them hit their mark to be a reasonably satisfying comedy.