REACTION: A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014, Dir. Seth MacFarlane)

Does anyone want an opinion on A Million Ways to Die in the West from someone whose only experience with Seth MacFarlane has been his hosting of the Academy Awards a couple of years back?

Never seen 'Family Guy'.

Never seen Ted.

Wasn't at all impressed with "I Saw Your Boobs"

Not a fan of A Million Ways to Die in the West.

Well, that's unfair. That's certainly what I could have written before seeing the film, if I'd let my general ambivalence to MacFarlane's pop-diarrhetic sense of humour get the better of me.

In all honesty, having now seen it, I'd have to say A Million Ways to Die in the West doesn't set out to generate fandom. I'm not even sure it is really possible to pin that much care on this rather shapeless almost-western. It's really just a frame for MacFarlane to transfer his brand of disconnected laugh-farts to the big screen and to have them performed by some big name movie faces.

On that level, I really respect MacFarlane. He's really pulled it off. He's pulled it off and he's covered the whole screen in it. Aesthetically, A Million Ways to Die in the West captures the 'Family Guy' schtick perfectly (and I'm judging from the few seconds my friends have forced me to watch on YouTube). It's random. It's smarmy. It's profane. It's (at times) culturally intelligent. It's moustachey. It's unapologetic. It's questionable. It's gruesome. It's odd. It's cringe-worthy. It's racist. It's anachronistic. It's ballsy. And it's often fucking hilarious.

But it does wear thin after a while.

And it goes for a lot longer than it needs to.

A lot longer.

★★☆

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