You know those SNL skits that go on much longer then they should? That’d be the best way to describe MacGruber. Based on the recurring SNL sketch parodying MacGyver, MacGruber stars Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, and Val Kilmer.
The film opens 10 years following the murder of MacGruber’s (Will Forte) fiancée Casey (Maya Rudolph) by the evil Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer). MacGruber is approached his old friend Col. Jim Faith (Powers Boothe), to come back to find a nuclear warhead thats been stolen by his old nemesis, von Cunth. MacGruber teams up with the best friend of his late fiancée Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), and Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) to track his nemesis, and retrieve the warhead.
When I first heard that they were making a feature film version of MacGruber, my instant reaction was, “How can they make a feature film out of a sketch that lasts barely a few minutes, and occasionally runs too long as it is?” Well, short answer, they obviously couldn’t. ‘MacGruber,’ though made very well, falters at its very core. It’s just not very funny. When you can recall the few instances that you did laugh, you know that movie is flawed. My biggest issue is, it probably would be best suited for a younger audience, however, the filmmakers went out of their way to make it vulgar and violent, because the story on its own couldn’t have really made an adult audience laugh. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, this didn’t help their case. In fact, uninspired violence and vulgarity just bring you down even more. If that hadn’t been there, I just would have dismissed it as a kids movie. It most definitely is not a kids movie. It most definitely was not a good movie.
Most of the gun/blood effects of the film were campy, low-budget CG. The film had a handful of decent one liners, but nothing that I’ll ever be able to recall. I just can’t help reiterating my statement earlier in this review, MacGruber is just an SNL skit that gets painfully long, and its laughs are forced, few, and far between. Honestly, it isn’t like any of this is a surprise, I went in knowing it would be horrible, and it did.
Is there an audience for MacGruber? I’m sure there is, and I hope for Lorne Michaels sake they find it. And as far as the poster quotes, “Funniest Saturday Night Live film since Wayne’s World,’ they only said that so they’d get on the poster. They were lying. Do yourself a favor, stay at home, and watch Wayne’s World. And if you feel the need that you HAVE to go, take your wallet, and burn it. That will be more entertaining then sitting through MacGruber.