[Movie Review] A Million Ways to Die in the West

Hi Huneybees,

American dud - Seth MacFarlane is back with a new comedy. He directs, produces, co-writes and plays the role of the cowardly sheep farmer Albert in A Million Ways to Die in the West. Starring alongside him is Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribisi and Sarah Silverman.

MacFarlane reunites many of the filmmakers behind Universal and MRC's hit film Ted including Scott Stuber (Bluegrass Films) and Jason Clark who produce, and Wellesley Wild and Alec Sulkin who co-wrote the script.

Green Lantern - Ryan Reynolds together with Jamie Foxx, Christopher Lloyd and Mila Kunis makes special appearances in the movie, so you have to keep your eyes (and ears) wide to catch them!

The film opens with triumphant music and sweeping vistas of Monument Valley that remind us of the scope of the Wild West: The stone high pinnacles were then with an ongoing gunfight as Albert (Seth MacFarlane) backs out of it, his fickle girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) leaves him for another richer man (Neil Patrick Harris). When a mysterious and beautiful woman (Charlize Theron) rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband (Liam Neeson), a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test. 

This being his second movie after TED was a letdown for me. Being the creator of famous animated series - Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama and The Cleveland Show, you would be expecting tons of humour, ROFL moments, but sad to say, the funniest moment were mainly displayed in the trailer already.

Too much have been focused on sex and religious hypocrisy (one of the characters is a prostitute who refuses to have sex with her fiancé before they get married, fearing the judgment of the Almighty), actually alot of the humour gags ardeactually coming from this couple, it would have been fun to see Amanda Seyfried or Charlize Theron breaking apart from their pretty faces and inject more humour into their character.

In fact, some of the funny bits were old gags, that we kinda know what the next punchline would be or even just simple changes to those that were already used in the animations. The movies was a little messy as Seth might have bitten off more than he can chew. Overall, this was a good effort, but this does not surpass his first movie TED. 

I would give the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars.

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” is now showing in cinemas islandwide.

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[Movie Review] Taken 2

Hi Huneybees,

 "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money,But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." ---  Liam Neeson’s over-the-phone speech to the Albanian sex traffickers who kidnapped his character’s daughter in Taken (2008) 

This quote taken from the movie Taken was the most memorable when I watched the movie back in 2008. And now October 4th 2012, Taken is back with a part 2 - Taken 2. The action packed movie is back with the same cast and when I watched the trailer, I was asking myself: "Seriously, how much bad luck can a family have?!"

Synopsis

A year after the events in Paris in Taken, on a trip to Istanbul, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) - a security expert and former special-ops guy, gets a surprise visit from his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), and his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen). The happy reunion turns sour when Lenore is taken by people working for Murad Hoxha (Rade Šerbedžija), the employer of the men working in the Paris building where Kim's friend, Amanda, was found dead and the father of Marko Hoxha, whom Bryan killed in the previous film. With Lenore held hostage and Kim on the run, Bryan must utilize all his lethal skills to rescue them and eliminate any who are seeking revenge against him.

This is another hero saving the damsel movie, but this time, it's double the challenge. Not only does Bryan Mills (Liam) have to protect his daughter, he also have to save his wife from the evil clutches. 

Like in the previous movie, he has his usual gadgets and this time with the help of his daughter, they went round firing guns and bombing Istanbul (Ya, seriously, where are the cops?!) just to find out each others locations. I must say, as an audience, I picked up several tips if I was kidnapped or being chased down by men with guns (Eh, Singapore security very good lah).

 Maggie Grace raises a few "alarms" running around in bikini and shirt in Taken 2. 

I was a little disappointed by the part 2 of the movie, like I would expect more intense, perspective scenes and probably a little documentary of the beautiful city of Instabul, but it just just simply another save-the-day movie with alot of unable to capture fighting scenes (probably coz Liam is already 60 and alot of stunts were not done by him?). Those who enjoy traveling via theater seat will be disappointed: Rather than giving us a Bourne-style tour of the city’s intimate topography, the camera just keeps returning to the same aerial establishing shot of the Hagia Sophia church.  

However, the Luc Besson  (Taken 2 is produced and co-written by Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen, and directed by Olivier Megaton)  signature in movies was not lost this time in the movie too. Parkour was largely used in the roof chasing scenes and everytime I see Parkour on the movie screen, I'm all hyped up and almost wanted to go to the rooftop myself (Oh no! We can't do this in Singapore).

Well, usually action heroes tend to be the proxies for the viewer - allowing us to imagine ourselves in their place, punching out the bad guys and saving the damsel. But in Taken 2: I Can't Believe I Got Retaken (My made up line), you would want to be the daughter/wife. The notion of an über-competent, unstoppably brave, impossibly calm Superdad (who can't seem to be shot or injured) who will find and protect you at all costs would make all dad blush. (Future-wana-be fathers, watch this movie!).

I would give the movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Leaving you with another shot of the pretty Maggie Grace.

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