movie review: MacGruber
So I just saw MacGruber, the latest movie based on a Saturday Night Live sketch. With the exceptions of The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World, SNL movies don't have a very good track record, and MacGruber, based on SNL's recurring spoof of MacGuyver, doesn't change things much.
Will Forte reprises his role as the title character, whose reputation, amongst both soldiers and villains, is as a genius and hero, with bravery, intelligence, and fighting and spying skills of legendary proportions. In reality, he's an annoying, arrogant, bumbling moron, and this contrast is the central joke throughout the film; even people who have personally associated with him, and have every reason to know that he's an idiot, talk about him with awe -- until he repeatedly reveals his incompetence, to the point where even his admirers finally have to admit that MacGruber doesn't have much going for him.
Much of the humor revolves around the mockery of action movies of the 80s and 90s, which director Jorma Taccone and his writers accomplish not with exaggeration or satire, but rather straight-forward presentation. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. If nothing else, MacGruber at least illustrates that Taccone could make a very good serious action movie if he ever decides to. But as a comedy, the film too often falls flat on its face. MacGruber is, no two ways about it, a very disgusting man, and the movie is full of one gross-out gag after another. This is surely the only movie in history that actually tries to justify not one, but two scenes in which characters stick celery up their ass. The parade of one gross joke after another might sound appealing if you have that type of humor, but trust me, even if you think you've got a stomach for this kind of thing, sooner or later, you're going to find yourself turning your head from the screen in disgust.
The performers can't be faulted. As Jim Faith, the Army colonel who recruits MacGruber, character actor Powers Boothe walks through the paces of his thankless role with the right amount of determination, Val Kilmer is effective as the villain, and SNL comedians Kristin Wiig and Will Forte prove that they've got the acting and comic chops to make it to the big screen. Ryan Philippe is especially good as Lieutenant Dixon Piper, who ostensibly serves as Forte's straight man, although his reactions to MacGruber's constant nonsense provided the only real laughs for me. And at the risk of repeating myself, director Taccone is excellent at finding the perfect tone for an all-out action movie. Too bad all of this talent goes to waste in a comedy whose jokes were apparently written by six-year olds.
Will Forte reprises his role as the title character, whose reputation, amongst both soldiers and villains, is as a genius and hero, with bravery, intelligence, and fighting and spying skills of legendary proportions. In reality, he's an annoying, arrogant, bumbling moron, and this contrast is the central joke throughout the film; even people who have personally associated with him, and have every reason to know that he's an idiot, talk about him with awe -- until he repeatedly reveals his incompetence, to the point where even his admirers finally have to admit that MacGruber doesn't have much going for him.
Much of the humor revolves around the mockery of action movies of the 80s and 90s, which director Jorma Taccone and his writers accomplish not with exaggeration or satire, but rather straight-forward presentation. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. If nothing else, MacGruber at least illustrates that Taccone could make a very good serious action movie if he ever decides to. But as a comedy, the film too often falls flat on its face. MacGruber is, no two ways about it, a very disgusting man, and the movie is full of one gross-out gag after another. This is surely the only movie in history that actually tries to justify not one, but two scenes in which characters stick celery up their ass. The parade of one gross joke after another might sound appealing if you have that type of humor, but trust me, even if you think you've got a stomach for this kind of thing, sooner or later, you're going to find yourself turning your head from the screen in disgust.
The performers can't be faulted. As Jim Faith, the Army colonel who recruits MacGruber, character actor Powers Boothe walks through the paces of his thankless role with the right amount of determination, Val Kilmer is effective as the villain, and SNL comedians Kristin Wiig and Will Forte prove that they've got the acting and comic chops to make it to the big screen. Ryan Philippe is especially good as Lieutenant Dixon Piper, who ostensibly serves as Forte's straight man, although his reactions to MacGruber's constant nonsense provided the only real laughs for me. And at the risk of repeating myself, director Taccone is excellent at finding the perfect tone for an all-out action movie. Too bad all of this talent goes to waste in a comedy whose jokes were apparently written by six-year olds.
posted by Movie Man at
11:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home