A Million Ways to Die in the West
Universal Pictures | Release Date: May 30, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
19
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle SmithMay 28, 2014
I laughed more at Seth MacFarlane’s sendup of ’60s Westerns than I did at all the other comedies I’ve seen this year, combined. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonMay 27, 2014
Theron proved her comedy chops in the underrated Young Adult, and here she and MacFarlane get along like two eager puppies. If MacFarlane indulges in self-flattery by keeping in all the times this babe bursts into laughter at his jokes, he's forgiven; at least we feel like the characters are actually listening to each other. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 4, 2014
McFarlane goes as goofy as you’d expect, but there’s a fairly soft and traditional center lurking inside this hard-R candy. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 29, 2014
Like "Blazing Saddles", A Million Ways to Die in the West has a slew of comic set-ups and one-liners that kill. And, as with Mel Brooks' classic 1974 film, it steps unabashedly into vulgar terrain. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 29, 2014
I don't know if A Million Ways to Die in the West will turn any of the MacFarlane haters into fans. But for those of us who have remained on the fence until now, his raunchy, rat-a-tat parody is proof that beneath all of the bratty immaturity lays the head and heart of an outrageous quick-draw satirist. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 29, 2014
An inventive and caustic comedy that really does look like the thing it's mocking. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 29, 2014
While the whole thing feels weirdly miscalculated to me, A Million Ways to Die in the West tweaks the formula just enough, delivers a few laughs and keeps the guest stars coming. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 30, 2014
In more ways than one, MacFarlane is trying to outgross Mel Brooks. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 28, 2014
That’s not to say that MacFarlane’s film isn’t funny, but rather that his creative talent could benefit from more judicious editing and focus. MacFarlane’s id runs rampant with no signs of a superego (internal or external) to rein it in. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 28, 2014
In A Million Ways to Die in the West, MacFarlane loads up enough zaniness to make for a generally enjoyable mashup, particularly because the genial plot affords him a solid backdrop. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 29, 2014
The real problem with A Million Ways to Die in the West is one of editing. There are a million jokes in it, but only 500,000 of them are funny. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 29, 2014
Call this cowpoke comedy "Blazing Saddles" for millennials. Or just call it icky. Read full review
60
CineVueEd FranklMay 30, 2014
So much is thrown at the wall that some of it's got to stick - comedy for comedy's sake, if you will - and while that doesn't make for a great film necessarily, it certainly doesn't make for a bad one. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 30, 2014
This is a movie that -- in addition to being exceedingly well-cast and surprisingly well-shot -- is gleefully inappropriate and indulgently crass at every turn. Read full review
60
The DissolveNathan RabinMay 28, 2014
MacFarlane’s follow-up feels less like a film than like an extremely long, fairly inspired live-action episode of Family Guy, one that’s only as strong as the latest gag or riff. And this being a Seth MacFarlane production, those gags and riffs are of varying levels of quality. Read full review
60
Time OutMichael ChenMay 28, 2014
Despite the constant threat of untimely death, though, the consequences never seem too dire, and MacFarlane’s irreverent humor feels subdued without the jolt of animation that gave his previous big-screen effort, "Ted," an extra oomph of shock and awe. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 30, 2014
There are plenty of very funny jokes in the movie, but near-fatal lulls whenever it tries to make MacFarlane into a romantic lead or a genuinely inspiring hero — in other words, whenever it tries to make us like him. Read full review
58
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 28, 2014
A Million Ways To Die In The West certainly has merits, and in some ways, it is a step forward for MacFarlane, but it is also deeply undisciplined, and it undercuts its own best instincts in ways I find almost unbearably frustrating. Read full review
58
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 28, 2014
The moments of absurdity land with a wonderfully weird grace, while the desperately vulgar gags about sex and scatology echo and crash as though they were being uttered in a middle-school boys’ restroom. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 2, 2014
As far as the actors are concerned, Liam Neeson seems to be having fun hamming it up as the villain - a role he rarely gets to play. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 29, 2014
MacFarlane is a very funny dude, and there are times A Million Ways to Die is indeed funny. But too often the movie feels half-baked. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 29, 2014
A Million Ways to Die in the West seems serious about only one thing: its contempt for the gun-crazed macho ethos exalted in countless Hollywood westerns. You might call the movie “Revenge of the Übernerd.” Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 29, 2014
’Round these parts, when a movie promises a million laughs but only delivers a dozen chuckles, that’s a hanging offense. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 28, 2014
Stocking the supporting cast with top-drawer talent, he gives most of his costars little to do besides attract our attention on movie posters. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 28, 2014
Whenever MacFarlane — who has enough trouble maintaining basic continuity — has to stage a fight or choreograph a musical number, the whole thing falls apart. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 28, 2014
As director and writer, MacFarlane appears to have forgotten everything about cinematic standards of pacing, characterization and meaningful smut, resulting in an encore that's slow, sketchy and dumb-dirty. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 22, 2014
Spiritually, it's closer to a mid-range crowd-pleaser such as City Slickers than Blazing Saddles, too enamoured of genre convention to reach for the comic dynamite. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 30, 2014
Some of the gags do land — maybe one in four. But the genre-parody genre with big stars and poop jokes needs a little more class than MacFarlane is capable of providing. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 29, 2014
In the end, Albert’s biggest problem isn’t the threat of coyotes or cholera. It’s that he’s being played by the wrong guy. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 28, 2014
MacFarlane's film is too broad, too dumb, too offensive to justify the meager laughs it generates. Read full review
40
VarietyScott FoundasMay 28, 2014
Seth MacFarlane has delivered a flaccid all-star farce that’s handsomely dressed up with nowhere to go for most of its padded two-hour running time. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 29, 2014
It’s clear what MacFarlane is shooting for — nothing less than the chance to be both the Bob Hope and the Mel Brooks of his generation. Be careful what you wish for. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 28, 2014
Seth MacFarlane wants to be a movie star in the worst way. A Million Ways to Die in the West is result of this longing, a long/longer/longest comedy with long waits between jokes and longer waits between those that work. Thus, does his leading man career begin and end with a “worst way” Western. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 29, 2014
Some of it sputters, settling for smiles instead of laughs, and much of it flounders while the slapdash script searches, at exhausting length, for ever more common denominators in toilet humor. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 30, 2014
This movie feels like it has a million jokes, and every single one arrives with a lethal thud. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 30, 2014
Almost approaches so-bad-you-need-to-see-it categorization. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 29, 2014
The things that stay with you are the dull, boilerplate love story, the laziest performance of Liam Neeson’s career as a murderous gunslinger and the distracting amount of makeup Seth MacFarlane sports in the film. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneMay 28, 2014
All the whiny point-scoring is such an explicit appeal for audience sympathy that the dialogue feels derived from a malnourished stand-up routine. Read full review
22
Film.comKate ErblandMay 28, 2014
A relentlessly unfunny, charmless send-up of better films with better ideas. Read full review
20
Time Out LondonGuy LodgeMay 30, 2014
Given an inch by the surprise success of his raunchy teddy-bear romp Ted, writer-director-star MacFarlane now takes a drastically overlong mile with a film that flatters his moderate talent and subzero leading-man charisma at every turn. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 29, 2014
MacFarlane’s making no effort to push the envelope, which is something of a relief, but nor is he winning anyone around to his increasingly desperate stylings as a nerd-turned-bully. Read full review
12
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 29, 2014
Plenty of comedies aren't funny, but this one is more than that. It's wholeheartedly narcissistic in its portrait of male petulance and self-pity. Read full review
0
The PlaylistDrew TaylorMay 29, 2014
It’s a lifeless, meandering, overlong (116 minutes!) trudge through the oversized ego of its creator, full of wrong-headed humor and inept filmmaking. Read full review
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