A Million Ways to Die in the West

Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West tries really, really hard to be funny. But you can’t force comedy; it either is or it isn’t. MacFarlane surely knows this but had no choice once he decided to do a raunchy Western with modern sensibilities and his jokes dried up. He ran out of jokes in Ted, too, incidentally, but there’s more life in a raunchy teddy bear than there is walking in the exact footsteps of Blazing Saddles, still one of the best comedies ever made. MacFarlane plays the classic comic hero, bumbling, a bit cowardly, and not at all cut out for the many things that can kill you in the West. That includes a dastardly gunfighter (Liam Neeson) and, in other ways, the outlaw’s wife (Charlize Theron). This is simply a funny idea peppered with a few good lines and a lot of wasted opportunity.