MacGruber

Why does this film get such a low-rating? Well, just because it's super raunchy and not family-friendly or Oscar-worthy. If there was a rating for hilarious-ness, then this would be 11! Rewatching is a must; there are so many great jokes written and they are delivered so well by Will Forte and the rest of the cast. They will make you laugh again and again and have a fun evening. SNL short Macgruber was one of the best of Will forte and of the writing team, delivering great jokes within 30 seconds, mocking in a sweet and respectful way the old classic series of Mcgyver and his adventures. Maybe have a look in YouTube for these SNL shorts if you are not familiar with Mcgruber and this comedy style and you see right away what's this all about. It will make you understand some references but even as a stand-alone film, it delivers. If you like (or liked) SNL and if you are a fun of comedies with Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg or Seth Rogen/James Franco, then you will appreciate the humor and the hilarity of this film.11/10 hilarious.

A full-length film version of a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch may seem anachronistic these days; after all, it seemed the SNL movie finally died out way back in 1999/2000 with the one-two TKO of SUPERSTAR and THE LADIES MAN. The problems were obvious: even a talented cast and crew can rarely stretch out a three or four minute skit that hinged on the personality of the performer as he or she ran through the same joke again and again. I can think of only two times it did - THE BLUES BROTHERS and WAYNE'S WORLD. These films worked because their subject matter allowed for a larger story to unfold.

Lorne Michael's subsequent production efforts have taken the smarter tack. They build new stories around established talents, with the result that we go into the film with familiarity, to be sure, but also a sense of fun and surprise at what our favorite comedians might cook up. Tina Fey has really taken the ball and run with it in her backstage-at- SNL-show "30 Rock", realizing that after a while, all comedy sketches seem the same and the audience wants a different perspective. Meanwhile MACGRUBER co-writer and director Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg and Akiva Goldsman (together The Lonely Island), have become the most popular act on SNL by largely ignoring its conventions and doing what they want. Samberg's on-air sketches are mostly forgettable, but he shines in LI's genre-skewing short videos.

Taccone and company know how to tap cultural cliché like no one else working today. They represent a new type of humor at work in American comedy - one that lovingly wallows in cultural familiarity and the ironic potential therein. In an age of YouTube and instant dissemination of, well, everything, they know that the best way to reach the widest audience at a level that truly connects is through their pop umbilical cords.

Will Forte's "MacGruber" sketches follow an identical formula: MacGruber, a hyper skilled MacGyver parody (we learn in the opening of the film that he has something like 16 Purple Hearts and four Medals of Honor, and has somehow served multiple tours of duty as a member of every branch of the armed forces) is trapped in a control room of some bad guy's lair with his assistant, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) and a third person played by that week's guest star. Plus a bomb with a 20 second timer. MacGruber sets to work using household items to defuse the bomb, but invariably becomes distracted, largely due to his own hubris and general cluelessness, and the bomb explodes. Forte and Taccone wisely dispense with this template until very late in the game, instead constructing a plot in which MacGruber is free to run wild. Thus: rich evil guy Dieter Von Cunth (Kilmer, having a ball) steals a nuclear missile which he intends to use on Washington, D.C. His motives are unimportant. What is important is that there's only one guy who can stop him: MacGruber. In an opening scene recalling RAMBO III (tellingly, the stupidest one), MacGruber's former commanding officer (Powers Boothe) tracks down the titular hero at a monastery in Ecuador, where he's spent the last ten years in seclusion following the death of his bride at the altar. She was blown up by Cunth. It was messy. It takes some convincing, and a team-assembling montage gone horribly, horribly wrong, but pretty soon MacGruber's back in action and taking the fight to the enemy.

Support is provided by Kristen Wiig as Vicki St. Elmo, a woman as strangely trapped in 1989-era style as MacGruber, as well as Ryan Phillippe as Lt. Dixon Piper, who actually seems to know what he's doing, if he can ever get through to MacGruber, whose home-made tactics not only generally fail to work, but often make things worse. Phillippe, Booth, and even Kilmer stand in for the audience as straight men, scratching their heads at MacGruber's insanity. Taccone and Forte give them lines that echo almost exactly what the average audience member might be thinking when MacGruber distracts some baddies by stripping down and utilizing a piece of celery in an interesting way. And yet it works. It makes sense. What's surprising is the rawness of the film: freed from the limitations of live network television, Taccone and Forte work to earn their R-rating. Boy, do they. MacGruber is a foul-mouthed near-deviant whose dedication to his country is matched only by his penchant for public nudity.

Forte is a dynamo on screen, showing that he, like Will Ferrell and others before him, will do absolutely anything to get a laugh, no matter how potentially embarrassing. While some of these gags might push the bounds of taste – MacGruber has a thing for "throat rips" and the less said about his methods in the bedroom, the better – Forte's exuberance for the character shines through. It's this commitment to the bit that helps MACGRUBER immensely. It's all absurd, parodic, and ultimately pointless, but it's a very entertaining 90 minutes. Taccone and Forte have great fun messing with the conventions of action movies in general – and "MacGyver" in particular, though I doubt MacGyver ever offered to fellate a man to accomplish the mission. The film looks and sounds fine, and Taccone has made a smooth transition from short form music video parodies to action cinema; he's still got some things to learn, but he's definitely got chops. The best thing that can be said of MACGRUBER is that in the end, the intelligence and cleverness of its creators situate this film happily much closer to the work of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg than to the Butabi Brothers.

Let's hope this is the next step in a journey back for Lorne Michaels to producing quality comedy. Somewhere, John Belushi is smiling.

Seeing as there are only 14 reviews at the time of writing this, I decided to add my say.

Most importantly this movie needs to be viewed as it is intended. It is a parody of what I'll dub as the 80's action sub-genre. Parodies have to be measured on a separate scale. In my opinion they're generally silly movies with goofy characters, ridiculous plots, and a few cringe-worthy moments. They are this way because of their nature; they exist to poke fun at prior works or themes. The good parodies are really enjoyable, and I classify MacGruber as a good parody.

I saw this at my local theater last night and while there weren't many other viewers, there was an almost steady stream of laughs throughout the movie. MacGruber picks up fast and lays out the comedy. There weren't any lapses where I was checking my watch.

However, to enjoy this movie you must be able to stomach some raunch. More than once I instinctively put my hand over my eyes shaking my head in somewhat disbelief that they "went there." However, at each of these times, I was still laughing, as was much of the audience. This movie pushes the limits, but if you can handle it, you'll come out with a smile on your face and chuckle as you think back on the ridiculousness of it all.

In 1985, a show began about a man who refused to use weapons but instead used his mind (and everyday household items, of course) to outwit the bad guys. Fast forward to the beginning of the 21st century, Will forte created a character on Saturday Night Live that would have been hilarious and relevant, in the 80's. His character MacGruber stars in a one-note riff parodying the TV icon Macgeyver. Naturally Lorne Michaels thought this 90-second sketch should be made into a feature length movie.

Along with Forte, fellow SNL cast member Kristen Wiig is thrown into the mix as MacGruber's daft gal Friday, Vicki St. Elmo. A nuclear warhead is stolen and of course the only man for the job is a stale 80's parody. In this film it actually works. Stuck together like makeshift crossbow made out of Bubble Yum and a paper clip, Macgruber mixes realistic action with over the top crude, childish and witty comedy. The movies gags are a lot like Macgruber himself. When he wins, he wins big but when he fails he falls flat on his face. The hit and miss comedy will leave you cackling and rolling your eyes. The movie's strength is its repetition of jokes, which surprisingly, make you laugh harder the second time.

Forte plays Macgruber with the same weak acting as that of MacGyver. Some of his nonsense rings true and some of it makes you wish he'd shut up. Val Kilmer is given surprisingly little to do as the movies villain. The funniest thing about him is his name. All together it leaves us with a mish mash of epic proportions. Though uneven the film does reward its audience with laughs. MacGruber has parts that shouldn't fit but by some miracle the Bubble Yum holds.

Okay, I hate to start by blatantly stealing someone else's quote, but, when reading other reviews of MacGruber, someone else described it as 'Team America, but without the puppets.' Yes, I'd say that's a fair definition - only Team America was very funny and clever. MacGruber has a lot to live up to.

When I started watching MacGruber, I hated it. I was totally with those many 1/5 star reviews I'd seen describing it. My main gripes were that it simply wasn't funny and that the main character (MacGruber, believe it or not) was completely annoying. I was practically on the brink of turning it off after about half an hour, when, to my amazement, I actually laughed.

It's possible that by watching half an hour of this film lowered by IQ enough to watch - and enjoy - the rest of it. Okay, so the second half wasn't comedy gold, but I seemed to have a better idea as to what this film was trying to be and I laughed enough not to qualify this as a complete flop. However, it's worth noting that this film bombed at the box office, so perhaps I'm in a minority here.

It's a (loose) satire on action films where the 'burned out hero' is plucked from retirement for 'one last mission.' It has been done a fair few times before - Hotshots Part Deux was done nearly twenty years ago (and it's probably consistently funnier), but it has enough moments (in the second half) to make it just about worth watching.

And - seriously - don't eat the celery.

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