But Louise has gravitated to the slick, mustachioed Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), the richest man in town.Ī mustache, it turns out, is the ultimate male status symbol.
Anna takes a shine to the meek Albert after he saves her in a bar fight, teaches him to shoot (he’s an inept student) and promises to help him win back Louise. Lorey Sebastian/Universal PicturesĬharlize Theron plays Anna, the abused, gunslinging wife of Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), a notorious outlaw and leader of a gang that robs stagecoaches. This flighty comedy, which imagines itself a son of “Blazing Saddles,” demolishes the heroic mystique of the Old West with the nose-thumbing glee of a rambunctious brat who has just crawled out of a fetid mud puddle.Ĭharlize Theron plays an outlaw’s abused, gunslinging wife. MacFarlane playing Albert Stark, a cowering sheep farmer with a dirty mind, in his silly western spoof, “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” set in Arizona in 1882. It is primal farce, which, if we haven’t learned to accept it, will leave us permanently wrinkling our noses while the rest of the world goes on sniffing and chortling.Īnd so we have Mr.
Like his fellow naughty boys Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who share his attitude of deadpan sarcasm, he knows full well that the human appetite for good-natured humor about bodily excretions and the messy area between the navel and the thighs is here to stay. After all, he has succeeded beyond any sane person’s wildest dreams at building a comedy empire by holding a stinky finger to the racing pulse of the collective id.
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.You can’t blame Seth MacFarlane, that one-man comedy juggernaut, for wanting to add movie star to his list of credentials. 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).
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. 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.