Friday, May 30, 2014

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST (C-)


Bottom Line:  There’s a snake in this boot, indeed.  Feeling more like a million minutes, this sporadically amusing, gross-out, raunch-on-the-ranch western well overstays its weary-eyed, canyon-wandering welcome.  You’ll laugh – there are some funny parts, but funny parts do not a good movie make…  Had this rambunctiously disjointed flick actually stuck to its guns in terms of title/concept/idea and lost 30+ minutes to the cutting room floor, it all might have worked out for everyone.  Instead we get an underutilized cast of big name talent, a forcefully unbelievable romance and a misguidingly shoehorned-in old west story devoid of any laughter.  Commit to the comedy and we might have had a classic on our hands.  I love this type of humor when done with a tad of continuity – here it’s a scattershot approach to storytelling that never gels.  Yes, okay, you will laugh.  There are a handful of gut-busting scenes that work, and when it fires on those horse-drawn pistons you’ll find yourself pleased as punch.  When it’s not, however, you might be bored to death.  Hey, a million and one ways to die in the…  Oh, never mind. 
 
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman and Liam Neeson
Directed by: Seth MacFarlane (TED and creator of THE FAMILY GUY)
Running time: 116 minutes
Studio description: Seth MacFarlane directs, produces, co-writes and plays the role of the cowardly sheep farmer Albert in A Million Ways to Die in the West. After Albert backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man. When a mysterious and beautiful woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband, a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test.
 
Official site: www.amillionways.com

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