I leaped at the chance to catch an early screening of MacGruber, despite my unfortunate familiarity with the dozens of failed prior Saturday Night Live films. As far as leaps to the big screen go, skit comedy generally fares on par with a morbidly obese man in a jump-rope contest: nothing more than total, humiliating fail. But MacGruber is anything but the low-rent rehashing of the same jokes for two hours; in fact, the movie was pretty damned fantastic, and stands as the best SNL film since Wayne's World nearly two decades ago.
MacGruber opens with the high-fatality theft of a nuclear warhead by Dieter Von Cunth (a very bloated Val Kilmer), MacGruber's nemesis, who has plans to detonate the bomb at the State of the Union address. MacGruber (Will Forte), having long since abandoned the action-hero life, is called back into action by the U.S. government as the only man who can save the world. He accepts the challenge, declaring “let's go pound some Cunth.”
For the remaining 100 minutes or so, we were witness to a perfectly-executed multi-layered story of revenge, redemption and love, with several heaping helpings of outrageous, hilarious absurdity that only runs scant parallels to its inspirational predecessor, MacGuyver. While Forte pushes the MacGruber character to hilarious new depths, the surrounding characters play it straight; Forte's Ryan Phillippe plays Special Agent Piper, a straight-faced rookie whose by-the-book ways don't mesh with MacGruber’s "no plan is the best plan" approach. Kristen Wiig is Forte's perfect counterpart, playing MacGruber's love interest as Vicki St. Elmo, a naive but enthusiastic sidekick who keeps the mulleted one abreast of the dwindling time. "30 seconds MacGruber!" She's also fortunate enough to share the most awkward sex scene in film history with MacGruber, before his even-more-awkward encounter with the ghost of his fiancee (Maya Rudolph). Mark my words: Will Forte naked in a graveyard, humping thin air over a gravestone, is not something you can unsee.
True to form, MacGruber thrives on the asinine and obsesses over '80s pop culture (listening to Billy Ocean in his red Miata, carrying his old-school car stereo wherever he goes), while never too far from offering to fellate a man to get what he wants. Yes, this MacGruber feature film is for grown-ups only, and it's exponentially better as a result of their ability to throw politically-correct caution to the wind rather than the sterile humor castration a PG-13 rating would bring. The result is something in the vein of a live-action Team America on acid.
The most pleasant discovery of the film, aside from the fact that it worked at all, is that Will Forte is far more talented than he's been permitted to show on SNL. His performance is more engaging and endearing than the "reluctant cheesy action hero kicking ass" that have come before him. In fact, he walks a hilarious, heavy-handed line between Charlie Sheen in Hot Shots and Schwarzenegger in Commando. Watching him gear up for battle - inserting household items and random objects into various orifices and pockets instead of guns and grenades on straps - is Overly confident and hopelessly ignorant, there's nothing MacGruber won't do to save the day. Except use guns, that is... until he actually tries them out, to his flailing delight:
.jpg)
While the story is an intentional mix of every action-movie cliche you've ever seen, the original quirkiness and general committed weirdness of MacGruber is as authentically captivating as a spoof comedy can possibly allow. It doesn't hurt that the movie's got the very best opening title sequence of any film in memory. The theme song was redone for cinematic grandeur, and it's an instant classic.
Lorne Michaels sat directly behind me at the screening, and when the theater erupted with roaring cheers as the credits rolled, I turned back to see the proud producer beaming at the reaction. He's seen more than his share of dismal box-office failures, but judging by the pre-release reaction to MacGruber, old Lorne's got nothing to worry about.
CraveOnline's Rating: 9 out of 10
