Movie Review #37

MacGruber (2010) Will Forte, Kristen Wiig Directed by Jorma Taccone

The summer has started a bit slow, with The Pacific dominating my entertainment taste buds the past few weeks (if you haven’t seen it…see it!) and the lack of movies out there that are drawing my attention (I guess I’m waiting for the A-team), I haven’t been too excited to see movies. I had to force myself a bit this past weekend with two films (Robin Hood #38 is the other) that really did draw me in, but more so won my ticket money by being the best options of some bad options (obviously I’m not a Shrek guy). It is certainly debatable whether the “MacGruber” character from the SNL shorts and the popular Pepsi commercials deserved his own film, but this is how SNL works. For every Waynes World, there is a The Ladies Man (if you don’t remember this Tim Meadows film…do yourself a favor and never look it up) when it comes to these SNL films and though MacGruber is not as good as Waynes World or as bad The Ladies Man, it still has the feel of something that you should be watching free on TV (and judging by its lackluster 4.5 million dollar opening weekend, most people thought that).

MacGruber is the story of a an Ex-Special Forces operative that is brought out of retirement to fight his arch-nemesis who has stolen a nuclear missile. Dieter Von Cunth (played by Val Kilmer in his funniest role since Top Secret) is the bad guy, Lt. Dixon Piper (played by Ryan Phillippe, and believe me after you see this film you will never think of him the same way) plays the new partner, and Vicki St. Elmo (played by SNL alum Kristen Wiig) is the love interest. It is basically pointless to go over the plot points here as they are meaningless (and like MacGrubar I’ll just wing it), so I will tell you simply whether it was funny or not…yeah um it was pretty funny. It isn’t quite Hot Tub Time Machine, but it does have several memorable moments including an odd use of celery and a hilarious sex scene. Nobody in the film takes anything too seriously and the jokes are ambiguous enough that not much set up is really necessary. It is a forced 90 minutes and it is directed by an SNL director so don’t expect flawless timing throughout, but it is funny watching MacGrubar pull his stereo out of his car radio slot and carry it every single time he gets out of it…oh yeah his car is also a Miata…Ha! I marginally recommend it…it’s full of potty mouthness and gross out nudity, so send the kids to Shrek 4 and sneak out to see this if you are in need of a laugh…but go in with light expectations.

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) Classic 80’s music, The Iceman (Val Kilmer) doing funny again, and a hilarious love scene that will be a top ten funny moment on film this year is enough to sneak a 5.5 on The Shawshank Scale…no need to run to MacGruber (it would blow up accidently before you got there anyway), but catch it when you can.

Food For Thought: I rocked out an awesome Birthday cake ice cream cup this time around (and if you haven’t tried it yet go get yourself a Caramel Frappe at McDonalds…its good). Val Kilmer has a decent looking thriller coming out this year called The Traveler and Ryan Phillippe has a very cool looking movie called The Bang Bang Club coming out later this year as well about combat photographers capturing the final days of the apartheid in South Africa.