A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Albert Stark	Seth MacFarlane
Anna Barnes-Leatherwood	Charlize Theron
Louise	Amanda Seyfried
Clinch Leatherwood	Liam Neeson	½
Edward	Giovanni Ribisi	½
Foy	Neil Patrick Harris	½
Ruth	Sarah Silverman
George Stark	Christopher Hagen
Cochise	Wes Studi
Millie	Alex Borstein
Lewis	Evan Jones
Cameos	Christopher Lloyd Bill Maher Ewan McGregor Jamie Foxx Ryan Reynolds

Review

Seth MacFarlane returns to live action filmmaking (his second film, after Ted in 2012), this time mocking the old westerns. And while there's arguably quite a few ways to die and some creative moments in here, the title is more of an exaggeration than was probably intended. MacFarlane delivers great observational humour as always – and he should have kept that coming, because the story is completely unremarkable and painfully slow-moving. For some reason, MacFarlane seems desperate to infuse his film with romance and warmheartedness, which, to be honest, never has been his strongest suit, not even on Family Guy. I guess it's hard to resist the temptation of being Charlize Theron's leading man, but the dramatic value he tries to add here falls mostly flat, and the film suffers greatly from it. The highlights aren't bountiful, but they are there for fans willing to sit this out. One is a delightful turn by Neil Patrick Harris, another is Alex Borstein, who is sadly underused.