A Million Ways to Die in the West Review

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.

Neighbors Review

I went into this movie with high hopes, and boy was I not disappointed. Neighbors was even better than I could have imagined. It had an impressive cast that I will talk about in a minute. It had a pretty damn funny story, and kept me laughing until the very end. The people who made this movie took a concept (feuding neighbors) that has been used over and over again in sitcoms, and turned it into something that would make your grandma blush. 

I have been a big fan of Seth Rogen since I saw him in Superbad, and even liked his try at being a superhero in The Green Hornet. I have never considered myself a fan of Zac Efron. When I looked at him, I just saw some douchebag kid from those really shitty High School Musical movies. I did see him in 17 Again, but I only watched that movie because Thomas Lennon was in it, and I will watch almost anything he is in. I have to say this movie completely changed my mind about Zac Efron. If he sticks to adult comedy movies, I think he can have a long future. The rest of the cast really worked quite well.

It was nice to see Dave Franco in another great movie, (who played the Vice President of the fraternity in Neighbors). I liked him in both this and 21 Jump Street. I wonder if he got the part because he is funny or because his older brother is good friends with Rogen. Either way, I liked him as the Frat guy who partied hard, but also knew all good parties come to an end someday. I don't think he could ever hold a movie together by himself, but I definitely think he can go far as a supporting character. Another great supporting character in this movie was Christopher Mintz-Plasse's character Scoonie. Christopher Mintz-Plasse has become one of my favorite young actors. He was great in Superbad as McLovin', and has been impressing me since. By far my favorite role he has played was The MotherFucker in Kick-Ass 2. I am a huge comic book fan, and I really love Kick-Ass so to see him bring that particular role to life was a real treat. 

As far as female roles in this movie go, I really liked Rose Byrne as Rogen's wife and the "momma bear" willing to do anything to keep her home safe for her baby. I didn't realize it at the time I was watching the movie, but she was Jackie Q in Get Him to the Greek. I did not like her character in that movie, but she more than made up for it in this one. The other female role that I really liked was Carla Gallo. I know her from many different things, but the two that stick out to me most are her roles as Daisy Wick in the TV show Bones, and the period blood girl in Superbad. She had one of my favorite scenes in Superbad. I about pissed my pants laughing at that scene. I never really liked her character in Bones. I found her very annoying. In this movie, she played a party girl who was just a bit too old to be partying, but she would never realize this. She also has one of my favorite lines in the movie when she is talking to her ex-husband and tells him they should have a baby to solve all their problems. 

Like I said before, the plot of Neighbors at its core was just a rehash of many plots about feuding neighbors. Only, this movie put a spin on it by making the neighbors a Frat house. The best part about this particular take on an old plot is that it takes a look at two different transition periods in people's lives. On the one hand, you have a group of college seniors who party all the time, but will soon be out of college, and into the real world where you can't party all the time. On the other hand, you have a couple who are new parents, and haven't really adjusted to their new roles in life. You can tell that both Seth Rogen's and Rose Byrne's characters just want to have a little fun in their lives instead of doing the same thing every night. This is evident from the first time they go to a frat party and get super drunk while their daughter is at home sleeping. I don't want to get into too many particulars about the plot so I'm just going to tell you one small thing that should be enough to make you go see this movie. There is a point during Neighbors when Zac Efron's penis goes into Seth Rogen's mouth. This is in my opinion one of the best scenes in any movie ever. I'm just kidding about that, but I'm not joking about the penis thing. That actually happens. 

Like most movies, this one was not perfect. The biggest flaw I saw was that throughout most of the movie, I found myself asking where the baby was. Rogen and Byrne's may have loved their daughter but they sure did leave her alone a lot. As young as the baby was, I would never leave her alone as long as they did. My other big complaint about this movie was that during one of the scenes, Rose Byrne's character kisses two other characters that aren't her husband. One of them makes sense and was supposed to be sexy. Rogen sees this particular kiss and you can tell by his face that he is turned on. I don't think he saw the other kiss because if he had I think there  would have been a big fight between him and his wife. My problem here is I think they missed a big opportunity to cause tension between the husband and wife. Other things that didn't make quite as much sense eventually caused tension, but this felt like a missed opportunity. 

All in all, I think that Neighbors was a great way to start off my summer movie viewing, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh. I give it 8.5 out of 10.