You know what you’re getting with Seth MacFarlane and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Think Peter from Family Guy meets Ted in cowboy hats and you pretty much understand the entire film already. Even the woman introducing the film preview screening advised us to leave our maturity at the door.
A Million Ways is a western and it wears its clichés and stereotypes loudly and proudly. From the Bonanza-like opening credits to the John Wayne-era music, A Million Ways isn’t afraid to subvert its genre at the same time it embraces it. Full of running gags about not smiling in photos, to hookers and fights in saloons, it also includes a fair dash of social commentary about the role of women in America’s Wild West and the plight of Native and Black Americans.
Yet A Million Ways is no Blazing Saddles. It lacks the scope, the classic lines, the subtlety (in a way), the memorable scenes and the Mel Brooks pedigree. But if you liked any of MacFarlane’s earlier work then you’ll like A Million Ways.
It all ends in a massive gun battle apparently, but it was right then that the preview screening was abandoned by an emergency “evacuate evacuate” siren so I fled the scene and checked out Vivid instead. I’ve been invited to see the ending but I think I’ll pass on that and maybe see Vivid again instead.
