The nice people at Viacom Networks asked me if I was finally back in town to catch a preview of “A Million Ways To Die In The West”. Haha. (I had been in Seoul for their last few movie previews coincidentally.)
Anyway, before I watched the movie, I went to check wikipedia and imdb for the plot synopsis and from the ratings and reviews, it seemed like it wasn’t that a great movie.
Now that it is after the movie, I can say that it is pretty alright given how much I went in with zero expectations. It is the kind of movie where you leave your brains at the door and go along for the ridiculous ride.
Set in the Wild West, Arizona in 1880s, the storyline has the regular ingredients: drama, action, comedy, sex and romance. However, despite the excellent cast, overall, the storyline and jokes/punchlines while funny did feel a kinda weak for a 116 minutes movie.
I thought that the storyline and movie would feel tighter and stronger if the movie was trimmed to about 100 minutes or so. And since “A Million Ways To Die In The West” are from the same people who did “Ted”, you can expect A LOT of toilet/slapstick humour.
Storyline aside, the cinematography of the entire movie was superb! The various shots of the vast desert landscape of the Wild West was really beautiful.
Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson and Neil Patrick Harris are excellent in the movie! NPH never disappoints as expected. Seth MacFarlane is just too cute and fluffy the entire time which works really well in the movie since his character is a loser sheep farmer.
All that is said and done, I’d say that this movie is watch-able and great if you don’t want to use your brain for 116 minutes. There are quite a number of funny bits but they aren’t the “abs workout”-worthy type of laugh moments.
The joven.at.heart verdict: if you absolutely love “Ted”, this is worth a weekday ticket. Otherwise, borrow the DVD/BluRay.
“A Million Ways To Die In The West” opens in cinemas island wide in Singapore on 12 June 2014.