A Million Ways to Die in the West ** (2014, Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron) – Movie Review

Seth MacFarlane (who?) plays a Bob Hope-style cowardly sheep farmer who is hopelessly lovesick when his choosy girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him in favour of the moustache-twiddling Foy (Neil Patrick Harris).

But soon he begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town – it’s not that hard it’s Charlize Theron as Anna – upsetting her husband, the notorious gun-slinger Clinch (Liam Neeson).

Writer-director-star MacFarlane’s Blazing Saddles-style comedy Western is handsomely produced, with attractive cinematography, sets and scenery, plus a parody Elmer Bernstein-style score. There are some good comedy ideas, a couple of chuckles and a few funny moments, but overall the film just isn’t funny.

The script is just a series of scattergun jokes that vary from the witty to the obvious to the mean-spirited to the unpleasant. Some of the humour is clever but some of it just desperate with too many fart jokes and a disgraceful diarrhoea scene that makes you feel really sorry for Neil Patrick Harris.

Theron emerges unscathed and gracefully, and Neeson makes a fine Western villain. Both would have been even better with a much better screenplay. MacFarlane tries hard but he’s way overexposed. Giovanni Ribisi and Sarah Silverman do their very best to raise laughs as hero’s friend and his whorehouse girlfriend.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/