Charlize Theron’s Raunchy, R-Rated Western Is The Closest Thing You’ll Get To Blazing Saddles

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

Movie fans always love to say “you can’t make a movie like Blazing Saddles today.” What they don’t realize is that Seth MacFarlane tried to give us the next best thing in the form of 2014’s A Million Ways to Die in the West. While I can’t in good conscience say the film is a one-to-one analog to the 1974 Mel Brooks masterpiece, it proves that offensive satire is alive and well, and if the jokes actually land, filmmakers can still get away with it. The jokes in A Million Ways to Die in the West are racially and sexually charged, with just the right amount of toilet humor to round things out.

Don’t believe me? I have three little words for you: Neil Patrick Harris. And three more describing what he does: poops in hat.

A Million Ways to Die in the West, while a valiant effort to channel some serious Blazing Saddles energy, was ultimately a critical failure, landing at 33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. If I’m being honest, that’s a fair assessment. People didn’t hate this movie because it was offensive. It struggled because it feels tryhard, treating the art of landing jokes like a numbers game.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in A Million Ways to Die in the West. But for every zinger, there are about ten clunkers that don’t add much to the film.

Albert Stark’s Old Stump Stomping Grounds

Set in 19th century Old Stump, Arizona, A Million Ways to Die in the West introduces us to sheep farmer Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane). His girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him because he’s a coward, sending him on what I’d call a complaining bender that basically explains the title. Albert goes on extended rants about why living in the 1880s sucks, and it’s a lot of telling without much showing. We get it. There’s no running water or heat, people die of dysentery, duels are dangerous, hired companionship is expensive and unhygienic, and Albert never lets up.

Albert’s life gets infinitely more interesting when he meets and befriends Anna Barnes-Leatherwood (Charlize Theron), and the two quickly develop a spark. Unbeknownst to Albert, Anna is married to Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), a rough, no-nonsense outlaw whose primary means of communication is shooting people in the face.

As Albert and Anna’s relationship grows, we meet a lineup of colorful side characters, including Albert’s best friend Edward (Giovanni Ribisi), who’s dating a prostitute named Ruth (Sarah Silverman) who, despite her occupation, wants to save herself for marriage. Many of these interactions are facilitated by Family Guy mainstay Alex Borstein as Millie, one of the local brothel’s madames. A rivalry also develops between Albert and Louise’s new boyfriend Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), who comes off like a mustache-twirling antagonist because he is one who literally twirls his mustache.

Tries Its Best, But There’s Just Too Much Going On

While I appreciate Seth MacFarlane’s attempt to write and direct a raunchy Western comedy clearly inspired by Mel Brooks, A Million Ways to Die in the West suffers from trying to do too many things at once. There are so many side characters and cameos that it feels like the movie is leaning on star power instead of refining the script. Even Patrick Stewart shows up in an uncredited role as a talking sheep during Albert’s psychedelic trip after taking a massive dose of hallucinogens from a group of Apaches.

This only reinforces the problem. The entire freakout sequence is a hilarious vignette, with Seth MacFarlane going for a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas style spiral, but it doesn’t move the story forward at all. The whole movie feels like this, cramming gags into the runtime without asking if they’re necessary. The end result is a hodgepodge of Western tropes wrapped in Family Guy humor, in a film that never fully finds its own identity.

A Million Ways to Die in the West SCORE

I’ll call it a modern Blazing Saddles in spirit, but in execution it falls well short. Still, it’s a silly movie that fans of Seth MacFarlane will appreciate on some level.

A Million Ways to Die in the West is currently streaming on Netflix.