October 8, 2014 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 27 ‘A Million Ways to Die’ is comic look at Old West perils Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, and Seth MacFarlane in ‘A Million Ways to Die in the West.’ by Dennis Seuling “A Million Ways to Die in the West” (Universal), set in Arizona in 1882, focuses on sheep farmer Albert Stark (Seth MacFar- lane). Albert detests the location and time period destiny has inflicted on him and constantly refers to the innumerable dan- gers facing folks in the West: Indians, gun- slingers, disease, feral animals, accidents, etc. To Albert, the West is death waiting to grab unsuspecting victims. When his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) leaves him for a pompous fop (Neil Patrick Harris), Albert’s last iota of self-confidence evaporates, until he meets Anna (Charlize Theron), a new woman in town. Anna, how- ever, is the ex-gal pal of the most dangerous gunman in the Wild West (Liam Neeson). MacFarlane, who also directed, includes numerous sight gags, one-liners, and bits of slapstick, and creates some funny charac- ters in the process, chiefly the local prosti- tute (Sarah Silverman) who but refuses to consummate her relationship with her boy- friend (Giovanni Ribisi) until after they are married. Neeson, known for his tough guy roles in the “Taken” movies and the current “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” is excel- lent at sending up the image of the black- clad bad guy and contributes to some of the film’s funniest scenes. Theron’s Anna proves a very attrac- tive foil for Albert and serves as Abbott to his Costello, setting up gags as “straight man.” Harris has fun as the richest man in town who shows off his affluence with an elaborately waxed mustache. He even gets a chance to exercise his musical comedy skills in a loopy hoedown sequence. This ground has been covered before in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” but paro- dying Western flicks still provides rich pay dirt. MacFarlane’s theme of danger every- where underscores the gags as poor Albert tries to cope with all manner of adversity merely to make it to the next day. The Blu-ray DVD combo pack con- tains the R-rated theatrical version and an unrated edition. Bonuses include a gag reel, feature commentary, deleted and alternate scenes, an alternate opening and ending, and adigital copy. “Edge of Tomorrow” (Warner) unfolds in a near future in which an alien race is hammering the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), an officer who has never seen a day of combat, is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage finds himself inex- plicably thrown into a time loop that forces him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. But with each battle Cage, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), becomes increasingly skilled, and each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy. Time travel has countless possibili- ties for filmmakers, and the variation here is interesting — a sort of sci-fi version of “Groundhog Day,” with each “death” fueling Cage with improved abilities and knowledge of how to prevail. The action sequences are staged dramatically by direc- tor Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity”), who balances the bloodbath scenes with clever doses of dark humor. Blunt channels Sarah Connor from “The Terminator II” — the war-hardened veteran whose skills include wielding huge cannon-like weap- ons and fearlessly confronting a seemingly indestructible adversary. Extras on the 3D Blu-ray combo pack include deleted scenes, a digital copy, and four featurettes. The standard Blu- ray combo pack contains the same bonus extras. “Million Dollar Arm” (Disney), based on a true story, follows JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm), a once successful sports agent who is being edged out by bigger, sharper com- petitors. While watching a cricket match in India on late-night TV, JB comes up with a radical plan: Why not go to India to find the (continued on Crossword page)