Albert (Seth MacFarlane) is dumped by his girlfriend after he chickens out in a gunfight in the street in 1882 circa the Wild West where you can die in a million ways.   Soon his ex-girlfriend is dating a mustached business owner named Foy (Neil Patrick Harris).   He rebounds and learns to shoot after he meets a new friend (Charlize Theron) who is laying low in Albert’s town of old Stump while waiting for her awful notorious outlaw husband Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Nesson).  Meanwhile, Albert’s best friend is a dating a hooker (Sarah Silverman), but they aren’t having sex while she is getting paid to have sex with other guys.

 

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST is funny at times.  Sometimes the jokes really work and other times the jokes don’t quite gell.   The two cameos are great and thankfully Universal Studios promo people didn’t spoil the cameo during the end credits (even though they spoiled the other cameo in the trailers even though MacFarlane wanted to keep it a total surprise).  The cast is great, but Neil Patrick Harris seeks to steal every scene while Liam Nesson chews the scenery as the main black hat bad guy.  Seth MacFarlane is the weak link in the cast even though he is the lead, but I have to say I liked A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST better than TED.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary with producer Alec Sulkin, actor/ writer/ director Seth MacFarlane, and actress Charlize Theron

 

The alternate opening has some material I wish they left in while the alternate opening was thankfully cut for the great end credits cameo.

 

The deleted, extended, and alternate scenes feature some alternate jokes and a dream sequence I wish they used instead of the one that ended up in the film.

 

The gag reel is OK, but there are more laughs in the film itself.

 

ONCE UPON A TIME, IN A DIFFERENT WEST is a promotional featurette that has interviews with Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Sarah Silverman, and others as they praise each other and comment on how the movie got made.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST is a hit and miss Western comedy which has its comedic moments while some of the deleted material I wish they left in the film in place of what made it into the film.

 

This review is ©10-13-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

Like Enterline Media on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/enterlinemediaweb and follow on tumblr at http://enterlinemedia.tumblr.com