Let
me start this by saying that I love everything Seth Macfarlane puts out. I've
been watching "Family Guy" almost since the beginning, and I have
seen every episode of "American Dad" at least four times. I love the
way he tells jokes and makes obscure references to things people probably
haven't heard of. I'll be the first to admit some of the things he does in his
TV shows goes on for a bit too long, but none the less, I love them. The range
of voices Macfarlane can do is awesome. The same man does Stan Smith, Peter
Griffin, Roger, Stewie, Brian, and several other loved characters. I also loved
his directorial debut movie "Ted". I have always been a big fan of
Mark Wahlberg and seeing him interact with a depraved teddy bear was hilarious.
This was yet another time that Macfarlane lent his voice to an awesome
character. It is because of all these reasons that I regret to say that "A Million Ways to Die in the West" is not Macfarlane at his best. What I
mean by that, is his acting. Most of the jokes in "A Million Ways to Die in the West" are amazing. On more than one occasions, I found myself
laughing… uncontrollably laughing. There is a part in the movie that involves a
hat and some explosive diarrhea that was way funnier than it should have been.
Yet most of the scenes that I laughed at, Macfarlane wasn't the one saying or
doing the joke. The rest of the cast for this movie is what made it so great.
You could literally take Macfarlane out of the movie and put any other actor in
the same role and it would have been just as funny. His character is just an
average underdog who has been portrayed in just about every movie since the
beginning of movies. Macfarlane was only in this movie to stroke his ego, and
boy does he have a big ego! One of the biggest problems I have with Seth Macfarlane is that he puts himself into his movies just to get his personal
opinions out there. If you look at Brian Griffin from Family Guy and Seth Macfarlane's own views you will notice they are very similar. That is because
Macfarlane uses Brian to get people to know his own opinion. He did the same
thing with this movie. There is a certain joke in the movie about Parkinson's
disease and God that really didn't need to be there and you could tell that the
only reason it was in the movie was because Macfarlane had something to say. He
doesn't act when he is on screen during this whole movie. I got the impression
that he was just getting in front of the camera and reading lines. He had a
fantastic supporting cast, but most of the screen time is spent on him. You
would be introduced to an awesome supporting character and think to yourself, "I
want to see more of them", but then you would get 20 minutes of Macfarlane
before you got to see them again. I'm not saying Macfarlane should stay away
from TV and movies. I'm just saying that he should stick to directing and
writing them, and using his voice talents in them. He doesn't need to be seen
on screen.
So who is this underrated supporting cast that I keep talking about? Before I get into the big names, I want to mention Christopher Hagen who played Macfarlane's dad in this movie. Every time that man spoke during the movie, I was left in stitches. There is even a scene where you don't see his character but you can hear him, and he delivers a line that I'm still laughing at as I write this. My absolute favorite character in this movie was Foy who was played by Neil Patrick Harris. I am biased toward NPH because I love everything he does. I want to go to New York City and watch him in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", and I didn't even like that movie. I will go on record to say that Barney Stinson is the best TV character ever created. I will defend my answer of Foy being my favorite character though. It comes down to two things. The first thing is he has an awesome mustache that even gets a song. Second, is that he has the best scene in the entire movie. As a close second though, when it comes to favorite characters, is Sarah Silverman's Ruth. Ruth is a whore who works in the local saloon getting screwed all day by at least 10 men… 'and that's on a slow day'. What makes her an enjoyable character is that she has a boyfriend who she won't have sex with because they are waiting for marriage. She has some of the funniest lines in the entire movie especially after she is done meeting with a "gentlemen" caller. Ruth's boyfriend Edward is played by Giovanni Ribisi. I love Ribisi from many different things like the television show "Dads", "My Name is Earl", and "Ted". He is just a funny guy who is good at playing a nervous guy who doesn't really like to step out of his comfort zone. He is also good at playing a complete psychopath as can be seen in "Ted." This movie also had Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron, and Amanda Seyfried. They weren't as funny but their characters were still better than Macfarlane's.
Before I give my final thoughts on
this movie, I want to talk about something this movie did and so many other
movies are doing. The trailers for movies are giving too much away. It
completely ruins the surprise of something if you are expecting it to happen.
Take this movie, for example. In the trailers you see Macfarlane open up a barn
door and see Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" in the barn covering
up the Delorean. Macfarlane asks what he's doing and he says 'a weather
experiment'. This whole scene is about 10 seconds long, and it was in the
trailer for the movie! When I went in, I expected to see more to it than that,
but the 10 seconds that were in the trailer were literally all there was to the
scene in the movie. For some stupid reason the people who made the trailer
decided to ruin what could have been a really funny cameo. While I was watching
that scene, I didn't have the reaction that was intended. Instead, I just
watched it and was like "so that's were that fit into the movie."
More and more trailers are ruining the movie by putting too much in them. Just
the other day, I saw a trailer for the new "How to Train Your Dragon"
movie and when it was over, I felt like I had just watched the entire movie.
This trailer literally had a beginning, a middle, and an end-type of storyline.
If the movie company who made that movie wanted to keep people guessing, they
should have showed the masked dragon rider and not shown that it was the main
character's mother. It feels like that is a major plot point they are giving
away. Another culprit of this is the "Amazing Spiderman 2" which showed the
villain Rhino in all of the trailers but his role in the movie was little more
than a cameo. I can't be the only one who thinks this. Leave a comment and let
me know if you agree. Now onto the final opinion of what I think of "A Million Ways to Die in the West."
All in all, I love this movie. It
may not seem that way because of the first part of the review, but I just
wanted to point out the one main flaw that I saw. It is great to see a comedy
western. I have never seen "Blazing Saddles" so I can't compare this
movie to it. I would recommend "A Million Ways to Die in the West" to
just about anyone. I give it a 9 out of 10 stars.
