A Million Ways To Die In The West

 

With the continuing popularity of Family Guy, the surprise success of Cosmos, his courageous and hilarious hosting of the Oscars, and the huge success of his first feature film as writer and director (Ted) it seemed like Seth MacFarlane could do no wrong. Family Guy’s cancellation in 2002 (before enormous DVD sales saw its resurrection) seems to be the last time his career hit a trough. Although, if you were to listen to the vast majority of critics, and a seemingly large portion of his fan base, his latest film, A Million Ways To Die In The West, is another, much bigger, dip in form.

From beyond the grave, rogerebert.com likened the failure of his latest film to the downfall of the Adam Sandler brand following Happy Gilmore. They say it feels like a “byproduct of a man-child allowed to do whatever he wants because it worked last time” going on to add “Seth MacFarlane’s carte blanche that came with the box office success of ‘Ted’ proves to be his undoing” in the one-star review.

But as an average watcher of Family Guy, a fairly unmoved viewer of Ted, but a huge fan of comedy, both old and new, I was able to approach A Million Ways To Die In The West with a reasonably open mind. And I cannot lie: I really loved it.

Maybe I’m just worn down by seeing so many trite, safe and hackneyed comedies that I was overly enthusiastic to see a writer that isn’t afraid to tackle any subject, as MacFarlane certainly isn’t. He may tread the line between bravery at mocking usually taboo subjects and shocking for a cheap laugh, but it felt refreshing to see many of the jokes in his latest film on the big screen.

MacFarlane himself plays the lead as Albert, an incompetent sheep farmer born in the wrong time, and constantly aware of the danger of his surroundings. Like a less neurotic Mickey from Hannah and Her Sisters, he is constantly pointing out the inherent dangers of living on the American frontier in the late nineteenth century. His life is interrupted by the arrival in town of Anna (Charlize Theron) who he soon becomes romantically involved with, only to discover she is the wife of notorious outlaw Clinch (Liam Neeson).

Countless parallels have been drawn between this and Blazing Saddles, and although both mock the Western genre and tackle taboo issues, the style of comedy is wildly different. To his credit, although often to the detriment of the comedy, MacFarlane has tried to cram a genuine plot into his story. Whereas the ridiculousness of Saddles is happy to collapse into a frenzied mess for its closing act, A Million Ways To Die trips over itself to have the right number of plot turns, inciting incidents and satisfying conclusions.

The jokes are frequent, and although as many miss as hit, are more than enough to sustain a film that runs at a slightly too long 116 minutes. The real strength lies in both the supporting cast (including strong turns from Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman and Neil Patrick Harris) and the genuinely hilarious cameos, some of which would be spoilers, and some of which are just mental (Principal Belding from Saved By The Bell, or Gilbert Gottfried as Abraham Lincoln).

The main fault with A Million Ways To Die In The West can be traced back to 2011, when MacFarlane hosted The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen. When comedian Patrice O’Neal took the stage, he turned on the Family Guy creator and said; “It’s too much Seth. It’s almost like he’s jealous of his own creation, where he wants to prove that he’s better than the cartoons. He doesn’t have a partner, like Hannah Barbera, that will slap the shit out of him for saying he’s bigger than Yogi.” As a writer he is doubtlessly great, as a director he is fine, but as a leading man he doesn’t have what it takes. It’s a quality that often can’t be quantified, but whatever it is, he just doesn’t have it. Part of it is charisma, part of it presence, while some of it is his delivery and a lot of it is something of a lack of authenticity. Even in comedy, a good leading man is vital.

Despite its flaws, and there are a lot of them, the only thing that matters with A Million Ways To Die In The West is that it is funny. Seth MacFarlane remains one of the few voices of this generation creating original and entertaining content that pushes comedic boundaries without forgetting to actually make people laugh. Yes it’s goofy, yes it’s silly, and yes there are a lot of childish jokes. But there are also at least a dozen moments that made me laugh harder than anything else has in a cinema for a long, long time. 

A Million Ways To Die In The West is now being shown at Savoy, Showcase and Cineworld Cinemas in Nottingham.

A Million Ways website