The film features an ensemble cast including MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman, and Liam Neeson.

The film follows a cowardly frontiersman who gains courage with the help of a female gunfighter and must use his newfound skills in a confrontation with her villainous outlaw husband.

In 1882, in the town of Old Stump, Arizona, timid sheep farmer Albert Stark's girlfriend, Louise, breaks up with him because of his refusal to defend himself in a duel.

Lewis and Anna arrive in Old Stump under the guise of siblings looking to build a farm, but he is arrested for shooting the pastor's son in a saloon fight.

They give him a bowl of peyote, which he drinks in its entirety, sending him flashing back to his birth and through painful events of his childhood before a vision of Anna makes him realize he loves her.

A Million Ways to Die in the West originated as an inside joke between MacFarlane and co-writers Sulkin and Wild,[14] while they were watching Hang 'Em High (1968).

"[14] MacFarlane, a lifelong fan of westerns, began researching the topic, using Jeff Guinn's nonfiction novel, The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K.

[30] The film shoot was difficult, as the cast and crew navigated rough weather: "everything from hailstorms to blistering heat to arctic winds and torrential rainstorms.

"[33] All music is composed by Joel McNeely, except as notedOn May 16, 2014, the film had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles.

[14] A Million Ways to Die in the West was released via DVD and Blu-ray on October 7, 2014 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The site's consensus states, "While it offers a few laughs and boasts a talented cast, Seth MacFarlane's overlong, aimless A Million Ways to Die in the West is a disappointingly scattershot affair.

[48] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale; opening weekend demographics were 55% male and 72% over 25 years of age.

[51] Claudia Puig's review in USA Today was largely positive, writing, "A Western with a contemporary sensibility and dialogue that sounds markedly modern, A Million Ways to Die in the West is quintessential MacFarlane, at once silly and witty, juvenile and clever.

"[52] Stephen Holden's review in The New York Times was mainly neutral, calling the film "a live-action spinoff of Family Guy, with different characters.

"[53] "While the whole thing feels weirdly miscalculated to me, A Million Ways to Die in the West tweaks the formula just enough, delivers a few laughs and keeps the guest stars coming," wrote Salon columnist Andrew O'Hehir.

[54] Rafer Guzman of Newsday found the film amusing, calling it "another example of MacFarlane's ability to mix poop jokes with romance, foul language with sweet sentiment, offensive humor with boyish charm.

"[55] Scott Mendelson of Forbes commended MacFarlane's decision to make an unconventional western comedy, but summarized the film as "just ambitious enough for that to be genuinely disappointing.

[57] "Spiritually, it's closer to a mid-range crowd-pleaser such as City Slickers than Blazing Saddles, too enamoured of genre convention to reach for the comic dynamite," wrote Mike McCahill at The Guardian.

"[59] Richard Corliss of Time called the film a "sagebrush comedy whose visual grandeur and appealing actors get polluted by some astonishingly lazy writing.

[61] Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald gave the film one star, commenting, "There are enough laughs scattered throughout A Million Ways to Die in the West that while you're watching it, the movie seems like a passable comedy.

"[63] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal too found the film's length "exhausting," noting, "Some of it sputters, settling for smiles instead of laughs, and much of it flounders while the slapdash script searches [...] for ever more common denominators in toilet humor.