Will Forte as MacGruber. Courtesy Alliance Films.
MacGruber is based on a series of Saturday Night Live skits spoofing 1980s television show MacGyver. The punchline is always the same — MacGruber, played by Will Forte, blows himself up along with the people he’s supposed to be saving while trying to defuse a bomb. Since that doesn’t really translate into feature film material, Forte and his writing team of Jorma Taccone (who also directed the film) and John Solomon had to give the character a backstory while injecting a ton of extremely crude humour. The outcome? The most ridiculously funny film you’ll see this year (emphasis on ridiculous).
During MacGruber’s wedding ceremony Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) killed MacGruber’s bride-to-be (played by Maya Rudolph). That was 10 years ago and MacGruber, who is a trained Navy SEAL, Green Beret, and Army Ranger, has been living off the grid in seclusion ever since. Until now. Von Cunth has stolen a nuclear warhead and MacGruber is called back into action to put together a team of special operatives to go capture him. Things don’t do go as planned and in typical MacGruber fashion his team is blown to pieces and MacGruber is pulled off the case. Hell-bent on getting his revenge he begs Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) to help him get Von Cunth. Piper agrees and with the help of MacGruber’s friend Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), they go on a hunt to “pound some Cunth” as MacGruber puts it.
Forte is brilliant as MacGruber and appears willing to do just about anything for a laugh (even dancing around with a stick of celery in his rear end at one point). Wiig fulfills her part perfectly and proves she is one of the best female comedians to come out of Saturday Night Live in recent memory. Phillippe is good at being the straight man to MacGruber’s dimwitted idiot and even gets in a few good laughs himself. But it was Kilmer who truly shocked me. You can tell he gets his presence in the film alone is funny and he takes it one step further by playing it up in full-on schlock mode.
MacGruber isn’t going to win any awards, nor will it go down as a classic. However I’d say it’s the best SNL-skit-turned-movie since Wayne’s World. Bottom-line: If you saw the trailer and thought it looked funny you will not be disappointed.
Special features on the DVD include the theatrical and unrated version of the film, audio commentary with the cast and crew, deleted scene, and a gag reel.
Film *** / DVD *** (out of 5 stars)
Rated 18A
Cast: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Ryan Phillippe
Directed by: Jorma Taccone
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