Leaves Me Stumped
Old Stump, Arizona 1882 and sheep farmer Albert (Seth MacFarlane) finds himself being dumped by Louise (Amanda Seyfried) for not being a real man and for Foy (Neil Patrick Harris) the owner of a moustachery. After getting drunk and moaning about the West like a little bitch he returns to his everyday life which consists of trying to avoid being killed. But things change when Anna (Charlize Theron) rides into town and Albert finds himself becoming smitten with her. Trouble is that Anna's husband happens to be Clinch (Liam Neeson), a deadly son of a bitch which means that if Albert wants to prove himself he is going to have to man up.
Seth MacFarlane is a very clever guy, his jokes are often smart and even when they are comically filthy there is something often smart and funny about them. Unfortunately whilst MacFarlane can come up with the laughs he can't deliver them in front of the camera and that is the problem with "A Million Ways to Die in the West". Sadly most of MacFarlane's scenes where he is trying to be funny end up painful and lacking in laughs.
And do you know what it is actually frustrating because when you take MacFarlane's performance out of the equation the rest of "A Million Ways to Die in the West" is not bad. From Liam Neeson playing things a charming but deadly bad guy to Giovanni Ribisi naive young man who is loyal to his prostitute girlfriend they all deliver the comedy of the lines and characters. And on top of that there are some great set piece gags with a mixture of shocks and of course vulgarity.
But that does lead me another issue with "A Million Ways to Die in the West" as whilst there is a lot of jokes in the movie there is not a lot of storyline and with this encroaching on the 2 hour mark it ends up painfully drawn out.
What this all boils down to is that "A Million Ways to Die in the West" has its moments but it also has a lot of flaws including Seth MacFarlane in the lead role. As such for me it didn't work as well as I though it was going to be and the sort of movie I was glad when it was over.
