MacGruber

MacGruber's humor is about as consistent as its protagonist's ability to construct a working explosive. That is to say, more than half the time there's smoke but no fire, but when the comedy does ignite, the blast is enormous. Star Will Forte and director/co-writer Jorma Taccone expand their Saturday Night Live sketch of an inept MacGyver to feature-length without stretching the premise thin enough to trace Forte's butt hair through. It's the most entertaining SNL film since the original Wayne's World, largely because Taccone and crew turn their satirical eye towards the entire genre of '80s action films with cocky, implausible heroes. Set ten years after his fiancé was blown up during their wedding, MacGruber (a ridiculously decorated army veteran) has sworn off violence, living in peace at a monastery in a small village. Colonel Faith (played with a chuckle-worthy preponderance of gravitas by Powers Boothe) calls MacGruber back to action after arch-nemesis Dieter Von Cunth steals a nuclear warhead. Assembling a team of elite bad-asses doesn't work out quite as planned for Grubes, so he ends up recruiting military hotshot Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe, straight man to Forte's man child) and aspiring musician Vicky St. Elmo (the delightful Kristen Wiig). Wiig is a subtle scene-stealer, investing Vicky with a nervous fear that unearths laughs without resorting to sticking celery in her butt, unlike her male co-stars. MacGruber, the character and movie, is boorish and immature, but also gutsy and immodest as hell. Forte takes his cocky idiot routine so far over the top the other characters in the film often directly marvel at MacGruber's lame brained antics. Forget chewing ― in a natural response to Forte's approach, Val Kilmer pisses all over the scenery as Von Cunth, and Taccone's direction is every bit as irreverent. A quick tone cut during the surprisingly graphic sex scene alone is worth the cost of a rental. One deleted scene is included, with most cut footage ending up in the unrated version, and the rest making the gag reel. Commentary with Forte and Taccone turns into a one-man drinking game, so the extended pauses or slurred words are forgivable. The same good-natured buffoonery also makes the fizzled joke bombs worth wading through to get to the on-target incendiaries.