FILMS… A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

#2010s #AllPosts

 

A million parodies later…

 

A cowardly shepherd falls in love with the new girl in town but finds out it’s a wee bit complicated.

 

Neil and Amanda

Liam Neeson

A Million Ways to Die in the West trailer, c/o Universal Pictures and photos © Universal Pictures

 

In the days before Darlin Husband, I had only watched the adult-orientated cartoon, Family Guy (1999-) on TV twice. This first episode I saw parodied one of the later films in the Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983) films. I had then made a mental note to watch the series.

This was especially true when one of my friends then told me that there was an episode that spoofed my beloved Dallas (1978-91). This was with a live-action sequence with a shirtless Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) and Victoria Principal (Pamela Barnes Ewing) riffing the infamous Bobby in the shower scene. This made it then twice.

Years later, I confessed to my Darlin Husband about how before our first date I had been super nervous and sung and half acted out my Maria Von Trapp / Julie Andrews impression singing the song from The Sound of Music (1965), I’ve Got Confidence. Darlin and supertall husband always gently ribs me about my height… and he asked me if I looked like Stewie in Family Guy singing the same song. I did. Without the guitar. Honest.

I then watched Family Guy as much as possible and my favourite bits were the retro film and TV parodies. I was in tears of laughter at the send-ups of beloved films and TV from my youth such as Tootsie (1982), The Incredible Hulk (1978-82), Kramer vs Kramer (1979) and Sixteen Candles (1984).

When we lived in Scotland, you had to wait up till the wee small hours of the morning to watch Family Guy. However, surprisingly over here in Finland, it is on TV between 4.30pm and 6pm with 5 back-to-back episodes on a Saturday afternoon. Family Guy is not a harmless family orientated cartoon as the timing in Finland suggests. But it goes without saying, that we have a Family Guy free zone when the stepdudes visit.

Seth MacFarlane’s comedy movies also include Ted (2012), which isn’t DiCaprio acting his heart out as Roosevelt. Ted is also not a recent sequel to AI, Artificial Intelligence (2001) with a CGI teddy bear and Haley Joel Osment.

It is important to note that the title of this week’s, spoiler absent review, A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) may sound like a documentary introduced by that nice guy who did the docuseries Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)… but it’s not.

Onto the review… this film not only stars Seth MacFarlane, but he also wrote, directed and produced the film. This is one role up on Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990) epic. McFarlane’s co-stars include Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, and Dougie Howser MD Neil Patrick Harris.

It also has many cameos, which Darlin Husband spotted and pointed out to me. I won’t spoil it for you to tell who they are. But I will say the best cameo is jaw-dropping and Great Scott! it has to be seen to be believed.

The story is set in 1882 and is a comedy western. It starts with some perfect opening credits of scenic shots of the “old frontier” and a once familiar Western film-themed font introducing the film. The film’s opening soundtrack is also a music medley from several Western films.

MacFarlane plays Albert Stark, a cowardly, clumsy but romantic sheep farmer who in the opening scene talks his way out of a gunfight. This act leads to his break-up with his gal, Louise (Seyfried). After a couple of failed attempts to win her back, he tells his friend Edward (Giovanni Ribisi) and his prostitute girlfriend Ruth (Sarah Silverman).

Louise has now taken up with the cad with the moustache, Foy (Howser MD Harris). Stark decides to leave the West before he is killed in all manners of ways from ye olde Western days. Meanwhile, Liam Neeson’s mean and nasty outlaw, Clinch Leatherwood is leading his gang of bandits. After they meet an old prospector Leatherwood, the gang kill him and rob him of his gold.

In a nod to a similar cowboy role in an episode of Family Guy, Neeson keeps his own Irish accent. This is the accent adored by your mums and aunties in Love Actually (2003) and probably Jamie Lee Curtis’ character Wanda in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) would like it too.

Leatherwood is accompanied by his pretty, sassy and good with a gun wife. His wife Anna (Theron) says she has fallen out of love with him and the West. She heads for town undercover with one of the bandits to lie low while Leatherwood carries on with his banditry.

Albert and Anna meet when he saves her from a perfect send-up of a Western bar brawl depicting every stunt from every Western ever. After saving Anna from being flattened by some cowboys falling from the balcony, Albert and Anna form a friendship leading to him telling her about his unrequited love for Louise.

At the country fair – Western film references abound –  full of death and destruction, the couple bumps into Foy and Louise. Albert shoots badly at a shooting booth shooting stall against Foy and after this and his baaaaaad goading of Foy, Albert challenges him to a duel.

This leads to… in no particular order, a montage, duels, cliched romantic moments but perfectly acceptable here, more cameos, a isn’t that him cameo, a reference to Mila Kunis and a barn dance. Not forgetting an apt musical number, that coolest cameo ever, Native Indians with subtitles, what you initially think is an odd cameo until you really think about it cameo, hallucinations, an unexpected cameo, a few poo jokes and the scene you may want to show your mum or auntie… with Liam Neeson’s bare bottom in glorious technicolour.

I loved this film, the parody moments, writing and cast. However, I do think there was one missed opportunity that this line was not used – possibly due to copyright reasons – as it could have fitted in with only the one word changed from daughter to wife. The line is of course, from Taken and starring one Liam Neeson;

“…but what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my wife (daughter) go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you”.

But then luckily for me, Darlin Husband can impersonate Mr Neeson. He can also do a great Sean Connery impression, but that’s another story.

 

Weeper Rating:  😦 😦 😦 😦 😦  /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂  /10

Hulk Rating: ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎/10

 

---

The Great Western Blogathon 2018, No 16

This post was added to the Thoughts All Sorts  The Great Western Blogathon. Other reviews with this cast include,

• Seth MacFarlane in Ted.
• Charlize Theron stars in The Devil’s Advocate, The Fate of the Furious and more.
• Amanda Seyfried stars in my posts on Mamma Mia and the sequel.
• Giovanni Ribisi also stars in The Offer, Lost in Translation and more.
• Liam Neeson stars in The Lego Movie and Love Actually.
  

---