Movie Review MacGruber

MacGruber (2010) 

Directed by Jorme Taccone 

Written by Will Forte, Jorme Taccone, John Solomon

Starring Will Forte, Powers Boothe, Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig

Release Date May 21st, 2010

Published May22nd, 2010 

There have been so many things written about the history of Saturday Night Live and the movies that adding to the pile seems a waste of time. I will keep the history lesson brief, we all know the translation between sketch and feature has been less than stellar. I'm sure I am not the only one who thanks heaven there was no Church Lady or Hans and Frans movies, thank you Dana Carvey for your restraint.

And as evidenced by the dearth of SNL-movie related content written in relation to the latest SNL feature, I know I wasn’t the only one dreading the release of MacGruber. Based on a series of interstitial gags created by star Will Forte, MacGruber held little promise of feature length success. It's great to be surprised; MacGruber doesn't suck.

Will Forte is MacGruber, an ex-military man hiding out as a priest in some unspecified jungle on a self imposed Rambo-esque exile when he is approached by his former commander Colonel James Faith (Powers Boothe). There is a threat to the homeland and it comes from the man who killed MacGruber's bride on their wedding day, the evil weapons dealer Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer).

Colonel Faith wants MacGruber to come back to the US and stop Cunth from using a massive nuclear weapon on the US. He also wants MacGruber to work with top new military man Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) but MacGruber has other ideas. Our hero has a team to put together, one that fans of the WWE will absolutely love. What happens to that team and how MacGruber ends up working with Piper and Mac's old flame Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) is something for you to discover. All I'll say is 'classic MacGruber.'

I have brought a little more order to the plot than actually exists on the screen; MacGruber doesn't really play as a straight narrative feature. Will Forte and director Jorme Taccone wrote the script for MacGruber and kept true to the sketch show roots of the character by creating a feature that is really just a series of gags. Sure, there is something of a narrative line that travels throughout but mostly MacGruber just hits one gag after another and somehow the form holds.

The gags of MacGruber work one after the other after the other. A few build throughout, including MacGruber's odd attachment to his car stereo, but most are one off jokes and references to 80's pop tunes. And then there is the filth. MacGruber is shockingly filthy with R-rated material that might make the Judd Apatow crew uncomfortable. 

Part of the shock comes from the unexpected, MacGruber can't use so many variations of the F-word when he's on network TV. He also cannot have two of the most awkward, off-putting and hysterical sex scenes since Leslie Nielsen and Lisa Marie Presley donned giant condoms in Naked Gun. 

MacGruber's supporting cast is right along with him making the awkward into the hysterical. Kristen Wiig is expectedly up to the task but Ryan Phillippe is the one who gets the big assist late with a sight gag that lives up to the word gag. Val Kilmer is a rich choice for the goofy bad guy. The now chubby cheeked star plays a wonderfully straight bad guy to MacGruber's over the top good guy. 

Tossing dignity and good taste to the wind, the cast of MacGruber crafts a series of jokes that somehow adds up to a feature film. MacGruber doesn't really tell us much about the future of Will Forte as a star but as a gag writer with a great ear for just the right cheesy 80's pop song; he's kind of a genius. MacGruber thrives on Forte's instinct for brilliant bad taste.