There’s tons of raunchy humor and more than a little gore in the just-released red band trailer for the R-rated Western spoof “A Million Ways to Die in the West,’’ which hits theaters on May 23.
The most interesting question is whether Seth MacFarlane — the genius behind TV’s envelope-pushing animated series “Family Guy’’ who moved into films as the writer-director and chief voice artist of the surprise hit “Ted’’ — can carry a movie as an actor for the first time.
Sure, he’s got lots of heavy-duty support in “A Million Ways,” from the likes of Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron, Sarah Silverman, Neil Patrick Harris, Christopher Lloyd and Giovanni Ribisi.
But the trailer suggests that MacFarlane — whose previous feature-film appearances consist of bits in “Tooth Fairy’’ and the notorious “Movie 43’’ (where he played himself) — has a wan screen presence closer to Quentin Tarantino than Mel Brooks.
And then there was MacFarlane’s roundly panned appearance as host of the 2013 Oscars.