A Million Ways to Die in the West // Movie Review

I really enjoyed A Million Ways to Die in the West. It is a comedy taking place in the United States during the Heroic Era. The story follows a shepherd in the 'Wild West', where cowboys and bandits roam ramping, and search for love. While the plot and not overly stimulating, meaning it follows a very basic and simple path, the movie possesses many other factors that make it quite enjoyable. First of all it is filled with satirical content, exposing many truths about our current society. That would include our obsession with the vain, our obsession with medicine, racism, gender roles, stereotypes and much more. It also makes reference to various different pop culture symbols that add an extra bit of comedic value to it. In order to incite laughter the film deploys an array of methods, firstly it has the common punchline sense of humour, it uses a very crude and profane sense of humour (definitely not for those who are offended easily), it especially uses surrealism to create laughter. Many absurd situations present themselves and yet the characters pass them off as normal.  In terms of casting, the most notable was the use of Liam Neeson as a villain. Due to the seriousness of his portrayed persona the position of a heartless villain suits him much more that the role of a hero. Though crude and somewhat offensive for those who do not enjoy satire, it was very well done movie, gave me a good laugh. Watching it in a theatre also perpetuates the comedic value to the film. This is mainly due to the fact that laughter is somewhat contagious and therefore you would laugh more.