This was partially written by, directed, and starring Seth MacFarlane. So, that should give you a good idea how this is gonna go. Is it full of humorous, vulgar and very immature gags? Fear not, it has them all in spades. But it loses the non-sequitars of The Family Guy and sticks strictly to the Western genre. Except for maybe one scene, but that one might involve a lot of drugs so I’ll let it slide. And maybe a giant ice-block one. And some sheep shenanigans. And maybe a Back to the Future reference. You know what, fuckit, it’s a Seth MacFarlane Western, so pretty much anything goes.
Old Stump, Arizona, 1882. References to the time period are made, mostly pointing out that damn, that was kind of a shitty life that required some hard folk. Except for Sheeprancher Albert (MacFarlane). He’s kinda the black sheep of society there, doesn’t quite mesh in with most of the townsfolk, or even his own folk. And after a shoot-out he’s obliged to show up to that goes differently, his status with his girlfriend goes south and he’s ready to just say fuckit, I’m goin full retard and moving to San Franshitsco. But then some new visitors hit town, and perspectives slowly change, usually in an at least kind of amusing way while always taking the more blunt versus subtle approach.
If nothing else, it takes balls to make a Western parody comedy thingamajig since Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles pretty much nailed it. But time passes, and there’s different takes. This one is not bad. There’s definitely some funny shit here, if you like MacFarlane’s brand of humor. Here it’s all channeled into Western cliches and a few dick and pussy jokes. Because, well, MacFarland. Plenty of cameos throughout, some more humorous than others. Charlize Theron as the mysterious new love interest does okay in the role, makes it almost believable in a lot of ridiculous situations, so kudos to her here at least for understanding the material and acting appropriately. Is it Once Upon a Time in the West...for Neeeerrrrrds? No. It has way less harmonica.
