A Million Ways to Die in the West

Take Blazing Saddles, throw in a bucketful of modern expletives and you've got a future classic. Director, co-writer and star Seth MacFarlane (Ted) plays Albert, a frontier nerd who loses his girl (Amanda Seyfried) to the town's wealthy moustache emporium owner (Neil Patrick Harris). From nowhere comes divine Anna (Charlize Theron) who teaches Albert gunplay and love, but Albert doesn't know that Anna's husband is feared gunman Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson). From the outside, this is a big old-fashioned cowboy movie, but MacFarlane's modern view of the Wild West is actually very subtle, even if the laughs seem to hinge mostly on death, sheep and bodily functions - and they come fast and thick. This is the comedic western that had to happen: an enormous "what if" with plenty of surprises and great stunts highlighting some gruesome realities. Be warned: this is a very Marmite experience that won't be to everyone's taste - and don't miss Ewan McGregor in the film's centrepiece county fair sequence.