Review of MacGruber (2010) by Stephen M — 07 May 2012

Tick...tick...tick....fphfttt.

There are only a couple explosively funny moments in this scattershot parody.

The 1980s TV series MacGyver is a supremely easy target for a spoof; it had that cheesy style and a dumb do-it-yourself premise. What's more, Forte has been playing the character for a couple years on Saturday Night Live. However, almost all of the jokes here completely fail.

After a wedding day tragedy, MacGruber (Forte) goes into hiding. When an evil mastermind (Kilmer) steals a warhead, the hero has to come out of retirement to save the world. In other words, it's an achingly typical plot.

So, what does work in Forte's invention? A couple jokes are so funny-so well-delivered-that you may stop breathing from laughing so hard. These bits of brilliance give you hope that there might be a hilarious idea in there somewhere.

Sadly, the rest of the film is Val Kilmer stumbling through a boring villain role. Wiig is mostly wasted as MacGruber's love interest. And poor Ryan Phillippe is screwed over in one of the dullest roles in movie history.

This leaves the goofy gimmicks up to Forte's moody character, who only intermittently cobbles together something genuinely worth a laugh. Other times, Forte is shoving vegetables up his bum and stretching out embarrassing moments beyond audience tolerance. Like his hero, Forte makes something out of nothing, but his something isn't really worth a whole lot.