Review: MacGruber

You can read more of contributor Laurie Coker's reviews and features at True View Reviews.

Throughout the screening of MacGruber at SXSW this year, the audience laughed riotously and cheered. Afterwards we had the pleasure of meeting the cast in a Q&A session and hilarity abounded. Admittedly, I chuckled during the film, based on a Saturday Night Live sketch that spoofs one of my favorite old televisions shows, MacGyver. Still, I am not into silly, sometimes sick, stupid, over-the-top humor like my husband, so some of the film had me head in hand, thinking "Are you kidding me?" To be fair, I am not familiar with the skits on SNL created and made famous by comedians Will Forte and Kristen Wiig, so I went in not knowing what to expect, but if the audience reaction says anything, I most definitely was in the minority that night.

Forte plays MacGruber, a pseudo-MacGyver character who sports a mullet-like haircut and a cherry-red muscle car and seems permanently trapped in a particularly terrible 80s action movie or sitcom. In the SNL sketches, MacGruber's entire life consisted of trying to defuse something, only to be distracted just long enough for the bomb to go off and kill them all, but this would not do in a feature-length film, especially one hoping to garner sequels. So in the movie, he is a sort of uber-commando hired to stop an evil plot by a villain named Cunth (Val Kilmer) – yes, Cunth. The villain's name basically speaks volume to the kind of humor that makes up the rightly R-rated MacGruber.

Nothing is sacred in this movie -- from abortion jokes to gags that involve a stalk of celery protruding from characters' bare butt cheeks, MacGruber covers it all. Speaking of celery, MacGruber, who prefers to work alone, is teamed with Lt. Dixon Piper, a hardnosed, by-the-book special agent, played wonderfully and hilariously by Ryan Phillippe. Had it not been for Phillippe, I would have like this film less. He adds a necessary straight, but funny man to Forte's, way, way, way over-the-top asinine humor. When the celery gag involved Forte, I simply shook my head, but when Phillippe played it out, I laughed raucously in spite of myself.

I did take stock with seemingly bloated Kilmer, who appeared to be bored by his character and merely went through the motions. He's not onscreen that much, but he just did not look engaged or invested in the comedy or spoof. The only really funny thing about Cunth is his name. In terms of acting, Kilmer is the only weak link. All others, particularly Wiig and Powers Boothe, who plays MacGruber's boss Col. James Faith, play their characters with zeal.

Unlike Forrest Gump, who lacks intelligence, but is very lucky, MacGruber is flat out stupid and rarely lucky -- particularly in the SNL skits. His idiotic mistakes cause mayhem and still, somehow, at least in the film, he manages to come out on top. While the movie clearly lampoons MacGyver, it also takes shots at pretty much every action movie of the 1980s -- from First Blood to Lethal Weapon and Die Hard – and I enjoyed this aspect to be sure.

For what it is and what is attempts to do, I, suppose MacGruber shines. The Q&A with the cast and director Jorma Taccone definitely provided a highlight. Taccone was asked why Richard Dean Anderson had not done a cameo in the film (I would have liked this, since I think even now that he is hot, hot, hot), a question that he skirted. I heard Anderson appeared on SNL in a "MacGruber" sketch, and was written into the original draft of the film, so I wonder what happened, but I digress.

I find it difficult to write this review, knowing my biases toward the type of humor on which this film plays. I don't think "Cunth" is funny, nor do I find humor in abortion jokes, watching people be complete and utter idiots or anything of the sort. For fans of the sketch and certainly those in attendance at the SXSW screening, this film has merit as comedy. I wanted to like MacGruber and I did laugh at times, but I am inclined to place a C in my grade book, for those whose tastes run towards mine. I'm sure others will give far higher.