Expanding two minute skits into a full 90 minute feature is no easy task. So far, there’s been three successful translations for SNL film: The Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World, and the somewhat underrated Wayne’s World 2. No, A Night at the Roxbury didn’t quite make the cut. MacGruber, on the other hand, does. It’s not the bad movie the ads make it out to be. It’s hilarious. And most likely one of the funniest movies you’ll see this season.
This is, simply put, a brisk ninety minutes of light, perfectly dumb fun. It knows stupid it is and embraces the ludicrousness of it all. The idea of slanting MacGruber as being “silly” is silly in itself. This is exactly what Airplane is. Airplane looked to spoof the Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure-esque films while MacGruber aims for the eighties action movie formula. In broader terms, it’s pure parody.
In the film world MacGruber (Will Forte) is an ex-special op being called back into duty. MacGruber has been living in exile and was believed to be dead until he’s finally tracked down and asked to take his main nemesis/ex-college roommate Dieter Von Kunth (Val Kilmer). Cunth is responsible for the death of his wife which has haunted him ever since. With MacGruber going back into action he needs to assemble a team. After there’s a slight hilarious problem with the first pack he assembled, he’s now paired with the straight army man Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and his old friend Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig).
It’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Hilariously enough, it’s pretty much the exact same plot we’ve seen in countless action movies. That’s what this film gets so right: it takes the tropes we all know and pokes fun at them and yet still makes for a standalone story. It’s not highly compelling but for what it is, it’s involving. Plenty of films that are labeled as parodies are more so sketches like the abominable Date Movie and Superhero Movie. They’re a bunch of two minute unfunny sketches tied together for an exhausting ninety minutes. This isn’t that. While the first act is fairly episodic and does come off as sketch comedy, at least it’s actually funny. Films like this and Walk Hard get the fact you need an actual story at its core.
As for the tone, director Jorma Taccone and the cast couldn’t have nailed it any better than they did. They all know what movie they’re making. No actor isn’t on the same page. Forte is funnier here than he’s even been on SNL. The MacGruber sketches themselves aren’t usually particularly funny, but as an actually character in his own film Forte makes it work. Same goes for Wiig who is deadpan and her awkward humor is as lovable as always. Sadly, the same can’t be said for Phillippe. He’s fine, but is stuck playing that one guy in the group that isn’t given any solid jokes. You need someone who can stand his own in terms of comedic chops when Forte is going so far. Val Kilmer though is the one that saves the day. Similar to Forte, he doesn’t pull his punches.
It’s rather saddening that MacGruber isn’t being done justice in all the TV spots and trailers. This is a film that could easily slip through the cracks during the summer season and it most likely will. Fortunately, it’s good enough that it will have a long life on video. The audience for this may not the widest, but it’s one that will perpetuate it to cult status as an endlessly quotable comedy that gets funnier with each viewing.