Directed by: Jorma Taccone
Written by: Jorma Taccone, Will Forte, John Solomon
Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer
Studio: Relativity Media
Running time: 99 minutes
Our Score: 1 out of 5 stars
This movie is the traditional case of displaying the best scenes in the trailer. The rest of the movie drags and feel like one joke stretched over 90 minutes. This movie runs an hour less than “Robin Hood” which is almost 2 1/2 hours; yet it honestly felt double the length. The jokes fell short almost every time. You are left sitting in an awkward silence hoping that the next joke is better.
I honestly have never seen the “Saturday Night Live” skits of “MacGruber” but it’s not rocket science to catch on.
The one-joke plot has MacGruber (Will Forte) after Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer) who steals a nuclear warhead. MacGruber is joined by Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) to help hunt down Dieter. Will Forte is honestly one of my favorite actors. He co-stars on “Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job!” occasionally, and he steals every episode. I am not even sure what Ryan Phillippe is doing in the movie, he is neither funny nor entertaining. Kristen Wiig always has a funny dry wit about her and she ruled the scenes she was in. Val Kilmer as the supposedly evil Dieter Van Cunth seems embarrassed to be in the movie and doesn’t really seem very evil.
“Saturday Night Live” films seems to strike out more than they hit. The only favorable movies so far have been “Wayne’s World” and “A Night At the Roxbury” and “The Blues Brothers” (if you count that as an SNL movie). In closing I went in to the theatre hoping to like this film and felt like I was slapped in the face with one LONG joke that was funny during the opening scene and died out REAL fast.
