Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I have a crazy busy day tomorrow and I need to grab some sleep, but I was caught off guard last night with the lifting of that Tron: Legacy Set Visit embargo (read the visit here), so I didn’t get around to writing up the world premiere of MACGRUBER, based on the SNL sketch that parodies MacGyver. I will make up for that now.
I don’t know how trustworthy my opinion is going to be on this because unlike the vast majority of people I’ve read online I actually think the MacGruber SNL sketch is funny. Slight, of course, but funny. I especially loved the run that included Shia LaBeouf as MacGruber’s closeted gay son.
I’m happy to report that the feature took the WAYNE’S WORLD approach, taking off-beat characters and expanding their world, barely touching on the confined original sketch. There’s only one call back to the MacGruber sketches and that’s during the big finale and while it is a tad awkward in a “hey, remember this?!?” way, it still works.
MacGruber is more a spoof of the ‘80s badass formula… a bad guy has a nuke, has it aimed at Washington, DC and there’s only one man who can stop him. The world thinks this man is dead, but the tough as nails Army General (Powers Booth) knows better and pulls him out of retirement. This man, of course, is MacGruber.
The flick turns a lot of these ‘80s conventions on their heads, but the real meat and potatoes comes with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig’s chemistry… oh, and Val Kilmer jumping back into the comedy realm as the bad guy Dieter Von Cunth. Yes, you read that right. “Let’s pound some Cunth” is repeated a few times.
It’s not as common post-Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but people still do tend to forget just how goddamn funny Val Kilmer is. Go back and watch Real Genius and Top Secret… if I knew nothing else of Kilmer’s career after those two movies I’d assume he would have moved on to be a world famous comedian. He’s so charming and genuinely funny in those films that I loved seeing him return to that kind of character in KKBB and now here in MacGruber, just playing it to the nines.
There’s not a ton of plot to this film, but there really doesn’t need to be. It’s a film about different types of personalities clashing while insane shit happens. MacGruber assembles a team to go after Von Cunth and that’s what they do.
The personalities at play are Forte and a Farrah Fawcett feathered Wiig’s romance, hindered by the fact that MacGruber was about to marry her sister (Maya Rudolph) when Von Cunth triggers an explosive hidden in the preacher’s bible (while mouthing the words “fuck you” in slow motion to the shocked MacGruber) splattering everyone in the front row with bridal gore) as well as the traditional Abbott & Costello straight man/funny guy dynamic with a serious, straight-edged military man played by Ryan Phillippe and the pompous MacGruber.
One detail I appreciate being added to MacGruber is that even though he’s depicted as a bit of a clueless dumbass, Forte, Jorma Taccone and John Solomon wrote him a bit in the same vein as the US Office’s Michael Scott in that every once in a while MacGruber is really, really fucking good at what he does. That keeps us on our toes a bit as audience members, not knowing when the next situation goes to shit if MacGruber will be ripping throats out (yes, that happens) or begging to suck someone’s dick to get him out of the situation (yes, that also happens).
The reasons I found MacGruber to really work as comedy was probably its ability to play with convention. MacGruber has his hard rock hero music when he’s doing movie things (assembling his team, training, etc), but when he’s driving he only has easy listening on his tape deck… which is portable, by the way. I don’t know if any of you guys are old enough to remember the tape decks that came with handles, so when you left your car you could just slide it out and bring it with you wherever you go. MacGruber has one and does indeed have it in-hand most of the movie.
The flick is vulgar, crude, ridiculous, silly and very, very funny. In short, it’s everything you should expect from a good SNL movie.
I just hope we get a sequel that brings Shia back as MacGruber’s gay son. Fingers crossed!
Speaking of SNL, I’m shitting my pants a little because in about 8 hours I’m going to be sitting down with Bill Murray to discuss GET LOW. That dude was a figurehead of my childhood… hope I don’t fuck that one up… I guess you’ll see in the near future when that interview goes live! Wish me luck!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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