Seth MacFarlane's feebly indulgent and moronic Western parody set in 1882 centers on Albert Stark (MacFarlane), an Arizona sheepherder sick of coping with danger in the Old West, particularly after his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him and he faces a potential gunfight with her new beau (Neil Patrick Harris). Albert is befriended by a mysterious sharpshooter (Charlize Theron), who—unbeknownst to him—is actually the wife of Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), the territory's most notorious outlaw. What goes wrong? Everything. Although MacFarlane's vulgarity was hilarious in Ted (2012) and on TV's Family Guy, he is simply not ready to assume full command as writer, director, producer, and star. Instead of a coherent script, MacFarlane strings together verbal and visual gags—formulaic fart and gross-out excrement jokes coupled with repetitive racist and sexist one-liners. MacFarlane is not even generous with his frontier costars, essentially hogging the screen in this vanity project, although Giovanni Ribisi is mildly amusing as a naïve virgin in love with the saloon's most popular prostitute (Sarah Silverman), who—naturally—refuses to have sex with him until they're married, and Theron and Neeson gamely do their best with bland, superficial caricatures. A comic misfire, this is not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary (by director Seth MacFarlane, writers/producers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, and costar Charlize Theron), “A Fistful of Dirt…In Your Mouth” making-of featurette (11 min.), a gag reel (6 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are an unrated version of the film, an unrated audio commentary, deleted/extended/alternate scenes (11 min.), a “Once Upon a Time, In a Different West” production featurette (10 min.), an alternate opening (4 min.), a brief alternate ending, and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a lame would-be comedy.] (S. Granger)
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Universal, 116 min., R, DVD: $29.98, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $34.98, Oct. 7 Volume 29, Issue 5
A Million Ways to Die in the West
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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