![1000 ways to die in the west 1000 ways to die in the west](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzk0OTAyODEwNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTUwMDA5MTE@._V1_.jpg)
What’s surprising is that MacFarlane, a voice-over artist, is a spare tyre in his own star vehicle.
Stretched over two-hours, this is plodding, sketchy stuff. Liam Neeson flicks to auto-badass Amanda Seyfried shoot blanks and Sarah Silverman plays a Christian hooker who refuses to have sex with fiancé Giovanni Ribisi – a one-joke role shared by two actors. If A Million Ways has a big plus, it’s Charlize Theron, who breezes in and rides off with the movie. Instead, MacFarlane falls for the wife of a bandit and the film wanders into rom-com territory. Occasionally the material hits but it’s far too arch to qualify as parody. The opening scene, in which he talks his way out of a duel by simulating a blow-job, pretty much sets the tone: beamed into the Wild West, MacFarlane’s neurotic sheep farmer is more like a snarky stand-up act trolling the frontier. The set-up, and it shrinks through repetition, is that MacFarlane plays a modern guy “born into the wrong time and place”. On the Steve Martin scale? Barely a burp. A Million Ways, the lead debut of Seth MacFarlane, bats out the punchlines and gross-out splats but there’s no stand-out gag, no “You’ve-got-to-see-this-bit” bit. There’s Something About Mary has the zipper of pain. Blazing Saddles has the campfire fart-off. Big American comedies live or die on gut reaction. Good thing too, because when Anna's husband - the notorious outlaw Clinch (Liam Neeson) - arrives on the scene, he's not so happy that Anna and Albert have been growing closer in the meantime.“The secret of comedy,” Steve Martin once observed, “is the ability to make people laugh without making them puke.” He is, of course, taking the mick but in his own stupid-wise way, Martin has a point. However, after being dumped by his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) for chickening out on a gunfight, Albert gets some training in the art of having courage by Anna (Charlize Theron), the new gun-slinger in town. Plot's something of a secondary concern at this point, but in case you were wondering: A Million Ways to Die in the West revolves around Albert (played by MacFarlane), a hapless sheep-herder who's spent his entire life going out of his way to avoid conflict and/or possible death in the Old West, whenever possible. Today, just a few weeks ahead of the movie's theatrical debut, we can add a second red-band trailer to the pile - complete with new footage that includes additional sex jokes, fart jokes, comical violence, and references to MacFarlane's previous work (see: Giovanni Ribisi doing his Ted dance while drinking at the bar).
1000 WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST TV
Most of the marketing push behind Million Ways so far has been comprised of red-band trailers and adults-only TV spots, since those are the best tools available, as far as showcasing the movie's unabashedly R-Rated sense of humor is concerned. That film is A Million Ways to Die in the West, MacFarlane's sophomore turn as co-writer/director and the first of his movies to feature the Family Guy creator in the flesh, after he provided vocals for Ted's CGI namesake. However, Seth MacFarlane would like you to know that there's pretty much no worse time and place in human history, and he has a new feature-length comedy arriving at the end of this month to prove it.
![1000 ways to die in the west 1000 ways to die in the west](https://thewolfmancometh.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/a-million-ways-to-die-in-the-west-sarah-silverman-giovanni-ribisi.jpg)
Life on the American frontier in the late 19th century doesn't sound so bad at first you might spend your time riding horseback around unspoiled landscapes by day, while frequenting the local bar at night to eat, drink, and be merry as you please.