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MacGruber: The SNL Curse Lives On
After a decade of downtime, you would think "Saturday Night Live" moviemakers would
have something amazing in store for audiences. MacGruber, is now the 11th movie
inspired by a four-minute SNL sketch, which is preceded by flicks like Night at the
Roxbury (1998) and Superstar (1999). This film includes plenty of SNL cast favorites like
Will Forte, Kristin Wiig, and Maya Rudolph coupled with some of Hollywood’s most
versatile talents Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer. As talented as these actors are and as
much as we may love them, let’s just hope they redeem themselves in future films…
The film stars out in the sweltering deserts of Eastern Siberia where a soldier is shot to
the ground, covered in blood. It almost looked like a scene from The Hurt Locker (2010).
Suddenly, however, the movie takes a comedic turn. Throughout the creative cast
introductions plays a song with the lyrics, “MacGruber…he made a funky
movie…MacGruber…” Clearly, there is not much to this song. Well, the same goes for
the film.
Ex-operative, MacGruber (Will Forte), is the only American to ever earn the rank of
Navy SEAL, Green Baret and Army Ranger. Let us also mention that this mullet
sporting, stuck-in-the-80s-hero was also awarded 16 purple hearts, 7 presidential medals
of bravery and 3 Congressional Medals of Honor. Despite his success, however,
MacGruber’s life took a downward spiral after his fiancée (Maya Rudolph) was shot
during their wedding. In the 10 years since losing the love of his life, MacGruber decides
to stop fighting crime to be a man of peace. One day, his former commanding officer,
Colonel Faith (Powers Boothe), approaches him with an important mission, as it is
quickly known that the entire country is in extreme danger. MacGruber immediately
refuses the offer several times - reinforcing his peaceful ways. Then, the Colonel explains
that a nuclear warhead was stolen by black market arms dealer, Von Cunth (Val
Kilmer)…also known as MacGruber’s worst enemy. Before we know it, MacGruber is
in and has already assembled his team of experts, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristin Wiig) and Lt.
Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe). They quickly set off to bring Cunth to justice…no matter
what it takes.
In the fight to find Cunth, MacGruber progressively gets worse and worse at his duties
and the movie becomes more and more predictable. As an audience member, it was
frustrating to watch this insecure, bull-headed “hero” blow every mission.
Although this film takes place in the 90s, MacGruber and Vicki seem to be stuck in the
80s. Their fashion sense is hysterical and spot on – shoulder pads, mullets, flipped out
hair, flannel shirts, vests and excessive blue eye shadow. MacGruber even carries his
removable car stereo everywhere he goes, which makes for some laughs. The fashion was
perfectly matched with the music as the soundtrack consists almost entirely of 80s hits
including Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight,” Toto’s “Rosanna,” and “Love is a
Wonderful Thing” by Michael Bolton.
Despite being filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, director, Jorma Taccone (SNL 2007-
2010), does an excellent job of creating realistic shots and scenery as MacGruber travels
to several states throughout the film: Colorado, Washington D.C., South Dakota, Nevada
and Utah.
One should be warned that this is an incredibly raunchy movie with strong sexual
content, violence, language and nudity thus, very deserving of its “R” rating.
Bottom Line: You have been warned. This movie does not do these actors justice. The
jokes are flat – and it was just plain boring at times. It seems like they wanted to
“enhance” this movie by throwing in all the nudity and crude language but it only made it
more repetitive and repulsive. During the movie, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow,
I think Mariah Carey’s Glitter (2001) was more entertaining,” and believe me, that says a
lot.
Jessica Aymond © May 22, 2010 |
