The average summer comedy this year takes place in the wild west. And the witty cowboy actor is Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane is the director and co-writer of this film about a cowboy with no sense to win the girl of his dreams through challenges of the ridiculous wild west. After the film “Ted” there really is no comparison, besides the humor, given that the plot line is the complete opposite.

The credits open being cowboy themed and the narrating goes towards how this version of the wild west is messed up. Here is Albert (MacFarlane), a sissy farmer, that cannot stand his grounds at all.

For Albert, all he wants is to be a man in his life. Towards the beginning his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) dumps him. Albert is obviously not mature enough to handle a break-up situation. He just drinks a bunch of alcohol and gets on his horse drunk which leaves him to be very uncoordinated throughout the movie.

Albert meets Anna (Charlize Theron), the wife of a robber named Clinch (Liam Neeson). Anna is basically forced by her will to do what Clinch expects her to. He expects her to rob, steal, and kill. They both separate on different tides of Arizona (where the whole film takes place) and that is where her fun with Albert begins.

Albert realizes that Louise dating the high-class man of town Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), a man with a trademark mustache and owns his own shop for shaving products. For Albert, he just cannot stand how Louise finds Foy so perfect, so he dares Foy to a gun fight. This is enhances the performance for both MacFarlane and Theron, because their friendship begins to expand as Theron’s character teaches him how to shoot properly to win.

What I found funny about “A Million Ways to Die in The West” was how MacFarlane can incorporate society problems of the time period, and have them play a role into being the funny in the film. For example, a mayor is shot in their city and no one has done anything for three days until all of a sudden wolves come and drag him to their territory. There is a fair and every year people die at the fair. Another funny portion is the fact that people are even afraid to smile in photographs. I will not give away the reason why people are afraid to smile, because that would just spoil how it is funny in the context of MacFarlane’s screenplay.

About the film though, it was trying too hard at moments with its dialogue intended to be funny. What I mean by that is some of the conversations were going longer than they needed to. Also MacFarlane talks fast and is funny but sometimes he was just talking so fast whereI could not capture every moments of the funny. He is a funny writer with clever ideas, just needs to watch his timing more with how to be funny. It is like the formula of a stand-up comedian, which is joke, pause, and finally…the punchline! The punchline was not what I always got of the screenplay that was filled with jokes.

I will just say do not expect there to be very much similarity to a film like “Ted.” This is not a film about a teddy bear or friendship, it is about making fun of the wild west, and quirky violence to leave fans laughing.

Two stars.

“Rocket Science” is funny, smart, and not your average raunchy teen movie. If you are a fan of shows like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreations” than the humor in “Rocket Science” is something that you will see similarities to. The humor is satirical like both of those shows, because of the fact that writer and director Jeffrey Blitz has been a part of them. He directs “Rocket Science.”

Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) is as quirky as we expect him to be. He is a solitary boy, has a stuttering issue that he struggles to overcome, and has a hard time accomplishing anything with his own-self. Repeating certain phrases on the school bus, Hefner is someone that really needs to find an activity that interests him.

Hal joins a debate team. The intelligent female debate student, Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) recruits him to be on the team. Hal sees that he is on the team because Ginny has got the hots for him. Hal though, believes his issue to be more than friends with her is his repetitive stutter.

When the debate competition begins, Hal is not able to shape himself up and look professional. He believes that making himself look ridiculous with accents and singing could be a tool to winning.

If this type of kid was on an actual debate team, debate judges would not put up with his delayed speeches and such. Thompson loses himself into the life of a witty teenager, because Hal is such a strange kid that is in need of some attention. Kendrick’s role is strict and appealing, but only for like the first thirty minutes of the movie. This leaves Thompson’s sense of humor to be the main point of funny in this film.

“Locke” is a one-man film who is in for a long car ride. Its only character that is seen throughout the entire movie is Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy). Every other character is only heard by the speakerphone in his BMW. The concept of “Locke” seems to gear towards forgiveness, since all of these problems are trying to be discussed and resolved by phone, or it could be director Steven Knight’s perception of discussions that seem cinematic, yet striking.

Ivan Locke is a family man and a construction manager. As soon as his shift ends, his boys call him to make it home for one of the biggest football games of the year, however, Ivan receives a phone call that is one of the biggest challenges of his career and sets a variety of conflicts that he struggles to resolve. Instead of dealing with the people verbally, he decides to go on a long drive to fix another situation but also deal with the rest of the other problems that is putting his life at stake. 

“Locke” is one of those last minute films. The film was shot in six days and all of the voices of the people that Hardy’s character speaks to was recorded in hotel rooms separately. 

In the film Hardy’s character has a cold and that was actually not intended but was added into the script. This happened because during the production, Hardy had a cold, but being on a tight schedule they just included his character being sick. Knight’s objective to include Hardy’s real-life cold sets the film to even be more suspenseful, because with all of the stress that Hardy’s character already has on himself, this just takes the cake for it being a bad day for him.

With this film, the technical element that grasped my attention was the oblique angles of the car and Hardy’s face when it was in frustration. In those moments, the colors faded and it is cinematic because it immerses viewers to feel like they are part of “Locke’s” life.

When Knight directed “Eastern Promises” that film was violent and contained tons of vulgar language, but was a masterpiece. Normally his films consist with violence to make entertaining. “Locke” is just as entertaining. Not with violence, but with aggravation and guilt that Hardy plays perfectly.

Four stars.