A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
TOMATOMETER
Critics Consensus: While it offers a few laughs and boasts a talented cast, Seth MacFarlane's overlong, aimless A Million Ways to Die in the West is a disappointingly scattershot affair.
Critics Consensus: While it offers a few laughs and boasts a talented cast, Seth MacFarlane's overlong, aimless A Million Ways to Die in the West is a disappointingly scattershot affair.
Trailer
Photos
ADVERTISEMENT
Movie Info
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. Starring alongside MacFarlane are … More- Rating:
- R (for strong crude and sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug material)
- Genre:
- Western , Comedy
- Directed By:
- Seth MacFarlane
- Written By:
- Seth MacFarlane , Alec Sulkin , Wellesley Wild
- In Theaters:
- May 30, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Oct 7, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $42.6M
Cast
-
Amanda Seyfried
as Louise -
Charlize Theron
as Anna -
Liam Neeson
as Clinch -
Giovanni Ribisi
as Edward -
Neil Patrick Harris
as Foy -
Sarah Silverman
as Ruth
Related News & Features
-
New on DVD & Blu-Ray: Edge of Tomorrow, Million Dollar Arm, and More
– Rotten Tomatoes
A Million Ways to Die in the West Videos
Photos
Friend Ratings
No Friends? Inconceivable! Log in to see what your friends have to say.
Critic Reviews for A Million Ways to Die in the West
All Critics (187) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (61) | Rotten (125)
The one person who gets the balance right, weighing parody and homage, is the composer, Joel McNeely, whose opening theme stirs hopes and memories that the movie cannot match.
A Million Ways to Die in the West feels like about 80 minutes of material was padded out to 110 minutes.
The movie, which MacFarlane directed and cowrote with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, is clever about its anachronisms. You stay surprised.
In A Million Ways to Die in the West, director-star Seth MacFarlane builds an imposing, affectionate reconstruction of the American movie West, then defaces it with funny mustaches -- often literally.
If you measure a comedy by how many times you laughed, Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West, at least for me, is a middling success.
Despite all the costumes, stunt work, and locations in Monument Valley, this big-budget western spoof by Seth MacFarlane is too glib to live up to its potential.
Audiences high on popcorn fumes will laugh along at the smut. But, at its core, this is a spiritually empty vessel trying to make a lot of box office noise. Blazing Saddles (1974) or Cat Ballou (1965) it ain't.
Seth MacFarlane is tedious, but Charlize Theron saves the day.
There are a million moments in which to contemplate your own demise while watching the smug self-indulgence and cheap, overelaborated non-comedy of this vanity project.
There is plenty to amuse in A Million Ways to Die in the West, but it's not a very good movie.
There's no depth to what you see on screen here: MacFarlane is simply doing what he does best; delivering cheap laughs as he continues to try and push the boundaries.
MacFarlane's legions of fans will no doubt flock to his latest reckless creation with an eagerness to please, but afterward they might just plead with him to keep his day job.
While I'm sure fans will find something to appreciate, I personally found this to be the worst comedy since Adam Sandler's Grown Ups 2 and easily one of the worst of the year.
Uneven yes, funny at times, yes, often uproariously so.
A Million Ways to Die in the West spends more time trying to push the buttons of its audience rather than entertaining it. It's amusing in small doses, but as a whole it's about three horseshoes away from being an atrocity to the comedy genre.
It forces characters into situations that are silly without reason, and expects the premise to substantiate a lot of bizarre twists that seem to exist out of total conceit.
A comedy that desperately wants to emulate Mel Brooks, but fails in every respect.
Theron's endearing rapport with MacFarlane the actor helps smooth over whenever MacFarlane the writer/director goes a little overboard with his penchant for toilet humor.
Well-meaning sheep farmer runs afoul of ruthless gunfighter. Also, Neil Patrick Harris sh*ts in a hat.
MacFarlane is one of the few male comic creative talents to have honed a style that stands against the Judd Apatow school of realism, but the movie just doesn't quite work.
Humour is, of course deeply personal, some people will enjoy this more, but few would disagree that McFarlane is capable of so much more.
Where's Gene Wilder when you need him? . . . What MacFarlane has achieved falls somewhere between Blazing Saddles and Blahs-ing Saddles.
As scatter-shot as a double-barreled shotgun packed with rock salt. Come back Lili Von Shtupp.
You'd think that you'd have plenty of room for good humour when trying to spoof the western genre, but MacFarlane falls back on the same childish material again and again.
Haiku MacFarlane should have Watched Blazing Saddles instead of remaking it.
Audience Reviews for A Million Ways to Die in the West
So this would be Seth MacFarlane's own comedy western version (or should I say attempt) of 'Blazing Saddles' or 'City Slickers' with his trademark Family Guy tomfoolery all in an uneasy marriage. The movies title does sound intriguing that's for sure, hell its actually a great title...but it could also be summed up quite easily in a 30 minute TV episode or maybe even a comedy sketch. This really is a one trick pony I'm afraid.
The plot isn't worth discussing as it simply involves MacFarlane playing the useless underdog against a rough tough cowboy and his band of merry men. In the middle is the blonde damsel in distress played by Theron who naturally falls for MacFarlane as things proceed and we make our way to the inevitably predictable stand off at high noon. Its the basic western theme with the basic western setups and scenarios along side the reasonably amusing notion of how easy it was to get killed in the wild west...briefly touched upon in places.
The film just felt like a spin off from Family Guy, almost like a live action version with 'Brian'. As MacFarlane provides the voice of Brian in his animated show it just feels like you're watching Brian in the wild west. The comedy plays out exactly as it does in Family Guy, you get the plot interspersed with the odd joke or visual gag that may or may not have anything to do with the plot. For instance right in the middle of the movie MacFarlane's characters stumbles across a barn and finds 'Doc Brown' working on his Delorean. Now I will admit its a nice little visual moment and both Christopher Lloyd and the car looked great...but its completely off the wall and had nothing to do with the actual movie!...just like MacFarlane's animated show.
I really must stop comparing this movie to that animated show but you understand its very hard. The humour is of course as you would expect with lots of toilet gags and slapstick, lots fart and poo gags, much sexual references, sexism, racism, black humour, offensive bits...and then there's some good old fashioned lunacy and visual jiggery pokery. End of the day its quintessentially MacFarlane, you either love it or hate it which isn't necessarily a bad thing but you just feel like its dated already. There are some things in there that did make me laugh...or at least giggle, some good lines of dialog here and there. Overall most of it misfires, seems childish amateurish or just plain dumb admittedly but there are still some accurate strikes from the comedy bomber. I liked the spiel about old fashioned photo's and folk never smiling, the various ways people could die back in this era, the bad state of medicine at the time and the way Ribisi's prostitute girlfriend casually acts about her career.
'shoot that dirty cowboy cum all over my face!!'
One thing the film does have and that's stunning location work. The movie really does look superb at every turn with the eye popping New Mexico backdrops. Some (most) of the acting scenes are outdone by the incredible landscapes we see behind the stars. Its far more interesting to look at the rugged desolate beauty of nature instead of Theron and MacFarlane trying to shoot bottles or MacFarlane trying to chat up Theron. Seriously am I the only one who thought that? is it me or is this guy clearly trying to flirt with Theron in some of these scenes? we all know he wrote himself the best part of course. Oh and what's with all the pointless non-dialog cameos? just because he could get these big names?
I get that MacFarlane has tried to make a sort of old fashioned western comedy mixed with his own unique blend of humour here...the classic credit fonts, the obligatory meeting with Indians, the old cliched good guy coming up trumps in the end routine after dealing with moustache twirling enemies (literately) and dirty dark coloured attire wearing bad cowboys etc...I think we all knew it would be a satire and parody of sorts...but I guess everyone just kinda thought it would be funnier or a bit more ingenious than just shit jokes.
MacFarlane is clearly not a leading man, I don't think anyone had the balls to tell him this. He ain't got the looks, he ain't got any sort of physique and strangely enough he can't quite pull off visual tomfoolery (neither can Theron, comedy ain't her thing). He does have an excellent voice though and that's his best weapon, we don't need to see you MacFarlane, just hear you. The movie looks outstanding in almost every scene no doubting that, the idea had promise, there are some good bits...but generally this feels like a very scattershot affair. The lighting has not been bottled here, hit and miss, now get off your high horse MacFarlane.
Super Reviewer
A misguided farce whose best parts were probably ruined by the trailers, and whose other parts were ruined by just not being funny. MacFarlane's comedic voice is very much present and still has some laughs to offer, especially this impressive cast, but this film is ultimately one of the bigger misfires of the year.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Or, tenderfoot nerd learns the ways of the West, one of the oldest horses to kick around. McFarlane gives it a twist by having our hero learn said ways from a woman (Charlize Theron, the best part of the film) who also just happens to be married to Black Bart (Liam Neeson), the meanest, evil-est, backstabbin'-est cur this side o' the Rio Grande.
McFarlane also pretends to disparage the by now traditional nigh religious reverence given to all things devoted to the American West and to lightheartedly debunk it ("I hate it out here," he insists). But we are shown that all the things he hates are merely what he's not good at doing. He distances himself from the wholesale slaughter of the aboriginal people by saying he alone amongst the settlers bothered to learn their language ("I'm not like them," he croaks).
There are funny bits, like Sarah Silverman as the town whore who as a Christian doesn't believe in sex before marriage. Or the town dance sequence. Or the many cameos.
All around it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be actually. It wasn't as bad as Ted was.
Super Reviewer
Seth MacFarlane is a versatile seriocomedic actor with a delicious basso voice, and Charlize Theron is a hip chick with surprisingly great deadpan timing. He can sing; she can dance. Is there anything they can't do? The anachronistic quips about life in the Old West are funny, and the commentary on Beta Male cowardice has a redeeming resolution, but on the whole, the plot is a bit forgettable. I was also hoping Amanda Seyfried would channel her Karen daffiness from "Mean Girls" to make Louise a more compelling ex-girlfriend character.
MoreSuper Reviewer
A Million Ways to Die in the West Quotes
- Edward:
- So should I bring her back around 6?
- Millie:
- We really don't keep a schedule around here. He'll just be in when he feels like putting his penis in an asshole.
- Edward:
- So we'll say 6, then.
- Anna:
- What's with this fair?
- Albert:
- Every year, people die.
- Anna:
- Really?
- Doctor Harper:
- I couldn't save her.
- Albert:
- She had a splinter. What the hell were you supposed to do?
- Albert:
- The American West is a terrible place in time. Everything out here that's not you wants to kill you. Angry drunk people, hungry animals, outlaws... the fucking doctor!
- Edward:
- Oh, hey, look! It's the ice!
- Edward:
- Ice is so big!
- Albert:
- So it doesn't melt. Actually, it's really interesting how they do it. It's this one company out in Boston that- OOAH! That went so, so fast! Ah!
- Angry Cowboy:
- "People die at the fair."
Discussion Forum
Discuss A Million Ways to Die in the West on our Movie forum!
