Fish and Cherries Productions

A Million Ways to Die in the West is a frustrating movie to talk about because it had some major, unavoidable, unforgivable flaws and just as many redeeming moments. Let’s get the bad out of the way first. Quite a few of the jokes fall flat or serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever, like the bewildering cameo by Doc Brown that comes out of nowhere and is never mentioned again. On top of that, the movie eschews comedy for action and drama in the third act to its detriment, the main girl not only becomes a shoehorned love interest when she and McFarlane’s character worked much better as friends, but also a dumbass in distress at the end, and the movie plays the standard coming-into-your-own story far too straight than a comedy like this should. But are their good parts? Absolutely. The humor is spot on when it’s not trying to mine gross out or shock humor, particularly in the middle section and about the time period, Neil Patrick Harris is enjoyable as always, and the songs are incredibly fun, because if nothing else, MacFarlane is a superb musician. Despite the laughs, though, I just found myself incredibly bored, and for a comedy, that’s just about the worst thing you can say.

The Muppets is a movie that’s very odd for me to talk about, since I really liked it and yet still found it incredibly cheesy. And that was probably the whole point. Also, Chris Cooper raps. There exists a page on TV Tropes called Sweet Dreams Fuel for works that will put people in a good mood and make them feel great inside, which describes this movie perfectly. The sets and costumes are bright, colorful, and inviting, the entire cast plays well off of each other, and the villain, played by Chris Cooper, is cheesy and over the top while still being effectual. And he raps. There’s two ways to look at this movie. The first is as the anti-Ted; both have a human and a stuffed being living together in a state of arrested development that perturbs the human’s lady love, but not only is it a lot less raunchy and cynical than Ted, but in this case, it’s more of the stuffed guy’s journey that acts as the pivotal point for their relationship to work. Another is as a meta commentary of the Muppet phenomenon as a whole; in the modern day of the movie (as well as real life), the Muppets have fallen out of favor in the public eye and they have to put on a performance to try and win back the crowd and see if they can get enough money to keep their name alive. Taken out of context, that could easily describe the stakes of the movie itself. In which Chris Cooper raps. Apart from that, I don’t know what else to say. It’s the Muppets. It’s got songs, it’s got really witty humor, it’s got celebrity guests like you wouldn’t believe, it’s got everything that put the Muppets on the map in the first place. And it’s got Chris Cooper rapping. So after all is said and done, especially after the reprise of The Rainbow Connection brought actual tears to my eyes (something very few movies have achieved), I can’t give anything but a glowing recommendation.

Seriously, though, why did Chris Cooper rap? And why did I not know that I needed that in my life until now?