The MacGruber

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The MacGruber

Former special operative MacGruber is called back into action to take down his arch-enemy, Dieter Von Cunth, who's in possession of a nuclear warhead and bent on destroying Washington, D.C.
Former special ops agent, the eccentric MacGruber, was long thought to be dead, following the murder of his wife Casey Janine Fitzpatrick during their wedding ceremony ten years ago. MacGruber did not believe in the use of guns, but rather self-made tools and weapons on the spur of the moment with whatever materials were on hand, and did not believe in working off of plans. However, MacGruber is still very much alive and has dropped out of western society to recover emotionally from Casey's murder, recover which he knows he will never be able to do. Colonel Jim Faith is able to locate MacGruber and coerce him out of retirement as MacGruber's arch enemy, Dieter von Cunth, who is thought to be Casey's murderer, has stolen a nuclear warhead, his intended use of it unknown. The one saving grace at this point is that Cunth does not have the codes to launch it. MacGruber's task is to prevent Cunth from using the warhead, either by eliminating him, recovering the warhead, and/or preventing Cunth from getting the codes. Rather than use his dream team of former associates for this mission, he is relegated to a team of three: himself, his former associate Vicki St. Elmo who he has to convince to return to work rather than focus on her stumbling music career, and Lt. Dixon Piper, more typical of the traditional special op member, he who is Faith's choice but who MacGruber hates. Beyond actions by Cunth to carry out his intended use of the warhead, MacGruber and his team face the obstacles of the differences between MacGruber and Piper, the former who is constantly putting his team at risk in his "my way or the high way" attitude. Through it all, MacGruber has to decide if he can love again as his reunion with Vicki brings to the surface their mutual attraction, that love which has always existed on Vicki's side despite being Casey's best friend.
MacGruber is an example of what you shouldn't do. Just because the SNL sketches staring this character were good and funny, the same does not apply to this movie. The thing is , pretty much all of the action and story felt out of the place - we were presented with the classic scene where the old associate asks our hero to come back and help save the world ; then the assemble of an elite team and last , the pursuit of the old nemesis. Still, the story didn't feel right. People being blown up out of nowhere. Randomly getting naked and 10 year old jokes. What actually disappoints in this movie is the lack of actual MacGyver scenes. I wasn't expecting Will Forte to do a plane out of a paper clip and a pen , but i was expecting he would try to do it and instantaneously fail. That's my main complaint, since i guess the writers simply forgot the purpose of the movie, the character and it's past. The acting was decent , with the actors well aware of it's roles. I think Forte's performance was good and he delivered what one could expect , and considering the character's childish moment , based in the past sketches. I hope SNL crew learn from their mistakes and don't ever release another movie based in a sketch , since it's fate is already known.
MacGruber is based on a character performed by Will Forte. It's a parody of MacGyver, the title character who had the ability to use virtually anything in his surrounding environment to get out of a hairy situation like creating a bomb from paper clips, gasoline, and doorknob (I don't know if he actually did that, but you get the idea). He was a survivalist and introduced the name MacGyver into the English language. The SNL spin on the character is fairly obvious. MacGruber is a poor man's MacGyver whose composure melts under pressure and he abnormal tactics work out in the end for him. We find MacGruber, hiding out in Ecuador, apparently retired. His country needs him to stop an evil mastermind from launching a nuclear warhead. A very generic action plot, but one that can lend itself useful to a comedy, much like Austin Powers did. After much persuasion and deep thought, MacGruber gears up for another mission. Along with MacGruber are Ryan Phillippe and Kristin Wiig, I feel like I don't have to go much further as I'm sure you can figure out the plot and how it will end just by watching the trailer. It's a simple plot, which is okay, and it has a beginning, middle, and an end. That about does it for the list of things the film did correctly. The character of MacGruber is perfect for a three to five minute sketch. He's not intelligent, predictable, and good for a few short laughs. Stretch that out beyond five minutes and you've got a problem. We know everything that he is going to do. Where he will fail, where he will succeed, and what quirky gimmicks he will use to get there, or at least that he will use them. The jokes and gags he uses are slightly amusing the first time (sometimes) and fall on their face the second time. His supporting cast of Phillippe and Wiig isn't anything special. Phillippe plays it straight while Wiig plays it cute and quiet. Neither provide anything really important, just an excuse for MacGruber to have a team with him. There's not much left to say here. Plain and simple, this movie just isn't funny. At all really. It was unbearable at times, and that isn't an easy thing for me to say. I wish I liked this one. I thought SNL could break the curse, but they just perpetuated it (sigh).
How much mileage can a comedy get from a single joke? Quite a bit, judging from the guffaws-to-groaners ratio in MacGruber.
MacGruber is based on a Saturday Night Live skit of the same name. The skit itself was a parody of the TV series <a href="/title/tt0088559/">MacGyver (1985)</a> (1985-1992). The screenplay for MacGruber was written by the Saturday Night Live screenwriting team of Will Forte and John Solomon along with American filmmaker Jorma Taccone, who also directed the movie. "Touch and Go" by Emerson, Lake, and Powell is the song that plays during the montage as he checks off the names on his list. This comedy was released rated R in theaters worldwide. In the US, the DVD and Blu-ray disc releases contain this version alongside a longer unrated cut which adds more story and dialogue as well as more spicy material. a5c7b9f00b

The MacGruber

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