MACGRUBER — ★★1/2 — Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe; rated R (violence, vulgarity, profanity, gore, sex, nudity, slurs); in general release
"MacGruber" really shouldn't work as a comedy at all.
The film is, after all, based on a series of skits from TV's "Saturday Night Live" and is a parody of the fondly remembered '80s-era television program "MacGyver." Also, the sketches themselves are usually contained to a minute or less — and as such, don't seem well-suited to a 90-minute-plus, live-action feature.
And more than that, this silliness most definitely shouldn't work as an action movie.
Yet it works as both things — at least on some levels. As crude and as dumb as some of it is, the movie gets laughs, some of them guilty ones, when it is spoofing the action genre.
The title character is a decorated Green Beret, Navy SEAL and U.S. Army Ranger (Will Forte) who's been in a state of retirement after the tragic death of his fiancée (Maya Rudolph) 10 years earlier.
However, MacGruber's former boss (Powers Boothe) has come calling. It turns out MacGruber's longtime nemesis, Dieter (Val Kilmer), has stolen a nuclear missile and plans to use it for an act of domestic terrorism.
If our hero is going to stop Dieter, he'll need help — from the one surviving member of his former team, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig). And they're joined by a wet-behind-the-ears officer, Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe), though he and MacGruber don't exactly see eye to eye.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, aside from the number of genuinely funny bits, is how violent and bloody the film gets at times.
And Forte, who co-wrote the screenplay, appears to be having a lot of fun with the character and with this material.
He also works well with SNL castmate Wiig (no surprise there) and with Phillippe, who is credible and convincing in the action scenes.
"MacGruber" is rated R and features strong, sometimes disturbing violent content and imagery (gunplay and shootings, brawling, martial-arts combat, mutilations, explosive and vehicular mayhem, and violence against women), some comic violence (slapstick), vulgar humor and references, both sexual and scatological in nature (sight gags, slang and other suggestive talk), strong sexual profanity, gory and bloody imagery, simulated sex and other sexual contact, male and female nudity, and derogatory language and slurs (some based on disabilities, as well as sexual orientation). Running time: 88 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com