A Million Ways to Die in the West is
directed by Seth MacFarlane, the man behind Ted,
and it stars: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Neil Patrick
Harris, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, and Sarah Silverman. There are also
many cameos from other actors that I will not spoil. The film is about a very
cowardly farmer (Seth MacFarlane) who is dumped by a girl (Amanda Seyfried) who
starts dating a rich man (Neil Patrick Harris). The farmer meets a new,
mysterious girl (Charlize Theron) who is married to a dangerous bandit (Liam
Neeson), and the farmer must find some courage so he can face this bandit
because a few things that I will not spoil happen.
This movie
starts out with several shots of huge landscapes in the west with a lot of
credits in a font that is a throwback to westerns and very good music that is a
big throwback to westerns. The musical throughout the entire film is actually
very good. The first ten to fifteen minutes of this movie are very, very funny
and I really enjoyed them. Then, the plot starts…
The plot
here is not awful, but it definitely has some problems. The biggest problem I have
with the plot is how familiar it is. You could probably tell from what I said
about the plot of the movie that there are clichéd elements, but there are much
more clichéd elements that I left out. Just about every beat of the plot is clichéd.
The film is thoroughly predictable. It seems like two clichéd, typical
romance/dramas combined together with a little comedy and action added. Even
the characters themselves are clichéd. This film’s narrative is the weakest
thing about it.
Though, I did
enjoy this movie overall. There were some dull moments in the movie; it was too
long. But I enjoyed most of it and had a really good time with the first
fifteen or so minutes. The movie had good comedy overall. The movie was
actually very well directed, too. It looks very good and Seth MacFarlane also
does a very good job with the camerawork. There are many wide shots used and
the few actions scenes are filmed very well. There were some good things in this
movie.
Because this
movie is technically a comedy overall, I will talk about the comedy, although
after the first thirty minutes the comedy almost virtually stops and there are
only a few jokes here and there. I already said that comedy was good overall. I
laughed at most of the jokes. There were no gut-busters here, but I was
laughing for several seconds after the scene was over sometimes. But there was some
comedy that missed here. There was also some over-crude and -dirty comedy in
this movie that is not funny and is just disgusting. There are also some times
when a joke is taken way too far, beyond being funny. There is also a bit of
slapstick comedy in this movie. Though, there is not that much. Despite all of
these flaws with the comedy, there is some very clever comedy, too. This movie
uses the setting for a lot of its comedy and it all works very well. There is
also some comedy that is very conversational. Some jokes fly by and I always
like that. There are also some very random outbursts of violence. The first two
were very funny, but the rest were not. After a while it seemed as if they were
going to start getting Final Destination-like.
As far as
the acting goes, there are some very good performances like those given by Neil
Patrick Harris and Charlize Theron. There were some good performances like
those given by Seth MacFarlane and Liam Neeson. The rest of the performances
were fine. The chemistry between the actors was mostly good, but the chemistry
Charlize Theron and Seth MacFarlane had was fantastic. Sometimes the
performances did seem as if they were not as good sometimes, though. It was
very odd. Some of it has to do with what seemed like the use of improvisation.
It seemed like there was improvisation used in several scenes. Sometimes it
seemed like the actors were trying to come up with something to say and you
could definitely tell that they were acting and takes you out of the movie.
Though, sometimes it does seem like two people are really talking and making
jokes and it works very, very well. Not all that type of comedy had the
audience roaring in laughter, but it did work in what it was shooting for.
Overall,
this is an alright movie. It has good and bad elements too it. I do think of
this movie positively, though.
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