@Coloma Yes, I liked Django. It was yet another spoof on all the salt-n-peppa films since the 70’s, including the satires. Even with a situation and lines that were old when Redd Foxx was still grabbing his chest and announcing to ‘Lizbeth that he was a-comin’, it was funny. Although mind-numbingly predictable, it held my attention, but I attribute that mostly to that young whippersnapper Jamie Foxx’s talent and not Tarantino’s. I liked it. It was OK.
(I confess that I’m pissed at Tarantino right now. I’m not giving him anything. He is incredibly talented (I cite Pulp Fiction), but all he is giving us is rehashed crap. He’s not taking his art seriously. Or maybe I’m wrong and he really is nothing more than a very good, one act, carnival freakshow.)
I saw a 2014 Western this year that was actually laugh-out-loud hilarious. A friend had sent it to me without comment. Three times I saw the title in my “New Films” folder and passed on it. I hadn’t heard of it and thought the title was droll. One night, down to the last film in my laptop, there it was waiting to be seen: ”A Million Ways to Die in the West.” I was skeptical. Good comedies are hard enough to come by, but good western comedies—the benchmark being Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles—are close to impossible. But I was trapped between insomnia on one the hand and the possible cure for it on the other, so I rolled film well- knowing this movie was going to suck. About eight minutes into it, I was laughing my ass off.
Turns out this film was written, directed and stars Seth MacFarlane of Adult Swim fame (Family Guy, American Dad). It was so good that I allocated to it precious megabytes on the triple terabyte drive where I keep the very best films I’ve ever seen. That’s the highest honor I can give a film: installation into the Hard Drive of Honor for Later Viewing at the Old People’s Home (HDfLVatOPH, for short). It’s not Blazing Saddles, but if Blazing Saddles is a 10, A Million Ways to Die is a respectable 7 and that says a lot.