Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Watching This Is One Of "A Million Ways To Die In The West"

A Million Ways To Die In The West (2014)

Rated R

Starring  Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman

Written and Directed by Seth MacFarlane

The Story:

Albert (MacFarlane) is living the dream in the Old West until his girl (Seyfried) dumps him. Alone and sad, he bounces back when he runs into Anna (Theron) and becomes smitten. Ah, but Anna has a secret, and he's about to ride into town and show Albert that death by gunfight is at least one of a million ways to die in the west.

MacFarlane loves unleashing himself in R rated movies where he doesn't have to abide by any rating restrictions.

Which is a shame really.

I've seen a few episodes of Family Guy and I've laughed at parts, but otherwise, not a show I can bear watching repeatedly.

Much the same for his movies.

There are a few parts that are genuinely funny, but they get bogged down in the incessant "hey, let's push the boundaries, we have an R rating!"

Not to get on a soapbox, but I'm already up here...

If the joke has to work within the confines of an R rating, then it's likely not funny.

If you can remove the offending language/prop or whatever, and it's still funny, then the joke is a good one.

Case in point, the giant ice block that kills the guy in the street.

We all saw that scene in the trailer.

It's funny.  Morbid, but funny.

Amping the joke up with a ton of blood almost distracts from the humor of the situation.

A big SQUISH sound, and the horrified reactions are the joke.

And therein lies my main problem with the majority of this movie.

The setup is there, but it gets mangled in the delivery.

Which is a shame, because he's assembled a great cast that pretty much has very little to do.

Unlike Fury, where I gave the film a C and realized I should have put it in the D range, I will not make the same mistake again.

Final Grade: C-   D+

Congratulations, you're in the running for Turkey of the Year.

:)

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