MacGruber (Review)

MacGruber is a weird, weird, weird, weird movie. It wants to be that way. It’s one of the strangest and most twisted comedies in a long time. That’s why I feel strange saying I wanted it to be even weirder. That doesn’t take away from the fact it is still a mostly entertaining comedy that is something of a breath of fresh air. But boy, it could have been something else.

I mentioned in my Summer Movie Previewfest that MacGruber seemed to be an odd choice for the first SNL movie in over a decade, and that the early reviews were glowing. Cut to today, where the Tomatometer now sits at a not-so-glowing 57%. Not awful by any stretch of the imagination, but no one’s phoning the Oscars. Or even the Teen’s Choice Awards. However, MacGruber was one of my favorite SNL sketches of late, adding a sense of excitement to a show in the midst of its most dismal season in recent memory.

So now comes MacGruber, the directing debut of middle-schooler Jorma Taccone, who is most famous for being a member of The Lonely Island, the comedy trio of Taccone, Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer. He has been one of the masterminds behing many of the Digital Shorts on SNL, and now here he is getting his first shot at the big screen. For the most part, he shows considerable skill.

Andy, me make movie good! Shoot, I'm gonna miss math class!

So, back-story: MacGruber has been hiding in South America in a convent or something since his wife was killed in 1999. Since then, everyone has assumed he was dead as well. But he ain’t, and now he catches wind that his archenemy and wife-killer Dieter Von… (Well, this is a family blog. Look it up.) has captured a nuclear warhead and is bent on turning Washington D.C. “into a pile of ash”. Now it’s up to MacGruber to throat-rip his way to victory.

Will Forte reprises his MacGruber role with a level of commitment that you see out of few actors. In fact, in everything Forte does, SNL and otherwise, you can tell he’s trying to get every possible laugh he can. How many other comedic actors would dance around naked with a piece of celery... up an orifice. However, this does not mean he is fit to be a leading man in the conventional sense. But if I have a role open for a wacky best friend, who knows?

MacGruber gets together a top team of “killer stoppers” to try and stop… Dieter. This falls through. So he’s stuck with Lieutenant Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig). Thus begins a series of miscues and attempted hilarity, which unfortunately is the weakest part of the movie.

I love how this film begins. It sets a tone of complete off-the-wall wackiness, however it then relents and becomes a far too predictable comedy. Not wholly unfunny, but not the film I thought we were getting into. I wanted more things to be completely random, but for the most part the movie seemed to be struggling to get to the end. Once we get there, however, the ending goes back to the tone that was set and the start, and it’s a blast.

The villain is played by Val Kilmer, who it’s good to finally see again having fun. (I’m still recovering from The Doors, one of the most uncomfortable movies I’ve ever seen.) We don’t spend quite enough time with him for my taste, but he makes a lot of his screen time memorable. In fact, I could have a similar criticism for most of the supporting characters. The movie focuses on the “ain’t he crazy?”-ness of MacGruber and tends to sacrifice the comedic possibilities that are around him.

I'm monkeymaaaaaan!

There will be a lot of people who love this movie (see: Jimmy Fallon), and a lot of people who hate it (see: Every critic over the age of 50). I’m not saying this movie is easy to swallow. You’re going to have to give in to its wackiness (and dirtiness, while we’re at it. It’s very R-rated, including two of the most disgusting sex scenes of all time.), and if you do you’ll have a hard time hating this movie.

In fact, I’d like to see this movie get its sequel and go for broke with the silliness. It’s a movie that knows it’s so incredibly dumb, and for the most part I love that quality in a movie. But at times this movie just wasn’t dumb enough. I have a hard time agreeing with the more virulent reviews here, simply because you have to admire this movie’s audacity and boldness. In fact, I quite enjoyed myself at MacGruber. At times it can be one of the funniest comedies in a while, but at times it can also be predictable and boring. I couldn’t get past the feeling that this could have been a comedic masterpiece, but at its best it’s a blast. For an institution like Saturday Night Live, a sketch show which at times seems as if it can’t produce a decent full-length movie, this is a significant step forward.

Rating: (out of 4)
(More like 2.75, but I rounded up.)