MacGruber (Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, violence, language and some nudity)
Starring: Will Forte
This film is now available at the dollar theater, Movie 7 in La Mirada at the border of Orange County.
Will Forte stars in the big screen version of MacGruber, based on TV’s Saturday Night Live’s clueless soldier of fortune of the same name, a highly decorated operative with MacGyver-type skills. After 10 years since his fiancée’s death, MacGruber comes out of hiding to fight his arch-nemesis Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), who has stolen a nuclear warhead. With his elite team of Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), he sets out to save the world from evil.
If you liked the MacGruber skits on TV (90 second or so skits where it always ends with an explosion because MacGruber fails to disarm a bomb), chances are you’ll like this film. One must have a high threshold for dumb humor to enjoy this. With that said, and to the film’s credit, the humor is not stupid because of any lack of talent, but because they push it to hilariously ludicrous heights. There’s more than enough groan-inducing material, potty humor, and visual gags that will either leave audiences laughing or turned off by it, and one of the gags involve him naked except for a celery stalk (read: Will Ferrell-type material). The feel of the film reminded me of Zoolander (which is still better), Stepbrothers, and perhaps that 80’s TV show, Sledge Hammer. In these films, the main characters themselves are the aberration, while everyone around them are fairly normal in comparison.
The mullet-sporting, flannel-wearing Will Forte plays his character with great relish and energy, and the humor, as dumb as it is, can be infectious in its boldness, although often grating too--most of the gags derive from his unabashed incompetence and outrageous antics. He is quite competent here in his incompetence. How does he even accomplish his missions? He is helped by Lt. Dixon Piper (played straight and well by Ryan Phillippe), who is more perceptive and handier with a gun than he is. Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) is his love interest, who is often thrown into disastrous circumstances due to MacGruber’s poorly-laid plans. Val Kilmer is hilarious as the pudgy, pony-tailed villain, the evil Dieter Von Cunth. He is that cold, well-tailored, action-movie villain with the off-kilter, quiet delivery of bad guy one-liners.
This film is a parody of MacGyver and 80’s action B-movies in general, full of cheesy, heroically macho dialogue, lots of explosions in the background with heroes walking in slow motion, outdated hair-styles, and overkills. What’s surprising is how the plot stays fairly intact and doesn’t fall apart, while retaining the more ridiculous jokes in there. The film’s tone remains consistent. The cliché evil-villain-with-nuke plot is enhanced by scenes of montage, slow motion, high-fives, and heroic music. It brought back my fond memories of 80’s action flicks. It’s cheesy, but I had missed it. If they ever made a movie version of the 80’s video game Bad Dudes, I’d assume MacGruber’s beginning montage scene would come close to it.
Overall, the film tries to be a dumb, silly film with a fondness for 80’s action films, and it succeeds in those accounts. If I compared this movie to food, I’d say it’s like salty bacon. Not much balance in flavor and not very nourishing. It’s not subtle--it's broad humor. Some will say this film is a waste of time, while others will say this film works because it dares to be a waste of time. Despite all the ridiculous antics, I found this film funny majority of the time, and Will Forte embodied this character beyond what I would’ve expected from a movie based on a 2-3 minute skit. I give this film ** ½ out of **** stars.
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