MacGruber
Action comedies, no matter how elaborate, are usually a pretty risky proposition, not only because the fans of such films devotedly love the known stable of genre stars (Arnie, Sly, etc..) but also because the clichĂ©s of the whole storytelling style (especially villain mistakes) are almost equally beloved in their own right. It probably doesnât help that this 2010 release (which bombed badly when it came out but now retains a slight pulse as a cult favorite) features as its star Will Forte, not only one of the more prominent members of the âdark yearsâ of Saturday Night Live which began around 1995 (and continues to this day) when the cast was revamped with an increasingly unappealing lineup of actors (of which only Will Ferrell and Tina Fey have ever achieved any level of stardom akin to the oldschool legends) but, like Ferrell, also epitomized the unfunny left wing frat boy mentality in their sketch comedy style of always winking at their own cleverness but yet not making the viewers laugh like they used to back when the show took brutal satiric aim at both sides of the political fence. The character in question here (MacGruber) being adapted from the SNL sketches was a straight up, elaborate parody of the iconic 80s / early 90s TV character MacGyver as played by Richard Dean Anderson, a guy who was a government operative who would take on world conquest obsessed villains and usually defeat them with a brilliant little gadget made by having him cobbling together various everyday items that he would find just laying around. As reinterpreted by Forte through the MacGruber character, we instead got a bumbling ass who would always play it cool but was not nearly as smart and clever as he thought he was, with most of the SNL sketches ending with him blowing himself up in a gigantic ball of fire. Cut to this movie adaptation here with Forteâs MacGruber having spent ten years being retired (and believed to be dead) after the death of his wife at their wedding ceremony before suddenly being approached by his old commanding officer (Powers Boothe) to be coaxed out of retirement. Despite the buildup that the character receives, we soon learn that MacGruber is very much a complete and utter moron in every possible way, quickly announcing his return to the villains publicly (when them thinking that heâs dead would have been a tremendous advantage) and always making a habit of either talking shit or drawing attention to himself every chance he gets even if it compromises the mission. He also has a habit of putting his fellow operatives in harmâs way even as he looks on from a safe place, going into an enemy compound with no earthly clue of how heâs going to accomplish his goals, building gadgets (including bombs) that embarrassingly donât work, and (since he doesnât use guns) ducking for cover every time thereâs a shootout while his comrades do battle with the bad guys. In short, heâs pretty much the ultimate inept action hero whose greatest skill above all appears to be talking shit. As for Forte himself, itâs really just a matter of charisma issues that he brings to the table, for as even though heâs got the long hair with a mullet and the actual outfit down pat, he really does come across more here as being just a genuine loser who has somehow fooled the military brass (like Boothe) into thinking that he is a worthwhile operative in the field instead of being a complete jackass who nonetheless always finds a way to get the job done despite his massive stupidity (think Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau) mostly because underneath all that aforementioned stupidity, there really is just a little slight bit of ingenuity at what he does, and maybe a more likable actor than Forte (despite having created the part) could have pulled that aspect of it off better (while leaving out some truly demeaning bits here that make MacGruber look even worse at his job than he is). As far as the mission itself is concerned, a nuclear warhead has been hijacked (a concept not only as old as early James Bond films, but which was also used in the first Austin Powers) and fallen into the hands of our villain, Dieter Von Cunth (yes, that is his actual last name and invoked repeatedly here for comic effect) as played by Val Kilmer, a legendary actor who is definitely an asset to every movie he has ever been in and that is certainly no exception here, playing his bad guy practically straight in the vein of a wealthy 80s action villain who hilariously enough is also fully aware that his adversary is a complete and total idiot even as his own men seem to be unable to finish MacGruber off. That in many ways is in part though to the efforts of his two sidekicks, one of which is a retired female operative (Kristen Wiig) who has put aside her burgeoning music career to come back to work and try to stop Kilmerâs Von Cunth and the other being a young Lieutenant (Ryan Phillippe) whom MacGruber derides as being a ârookieâ that he doesnât want to work with but who ironically seems to have both the weapon skills and toughness that MacGruber so laughably lacks in spades. In fact, the character is so obviously a fuckup that he almost becomes hard to swallow (keeping in mind that Clouseau would usually win out due mostly to sheer dumb luck but that he also mostly worked alone) and watching him having to depend pretty much entirely on the other two operatives while doing little himself to get the job done is a running joke that definitely starts to wear a little thin after a while. At least Kilmer with his suave way of doing things and willingness to kill his own henchmen for making mistakes (including blowing out the brains of one of them against a blank canvas normally used for painting) keeps things watchable whenever he is allowed onscreen and having more of him in there would have been a major plus. The film also boasts a nice 80s soundtrack (coupled with the fact that MacGruber prefers his music tastes to be soft rock / pop of that decade) and director Jorma Taccone manages to evoke a few laughs through the use of judicious editing techniques. The film also lovingly succeeds in embracing several of those previously mentioned action movie clichĂ©s so very well, mostly in the use of classic setups and scenarios that become undone usually by MacGruberâs own incompetence. But again, the issue continuously comes back to Forteâs MacGruber looking more like a fraud who always got by on the actions of others than anything else here, as Phillippe comes off as being one of the most patient characters ever in dealing with him until MacGruber literally uses him as a human shield (luckily he was wearing a vest) which reveals MacGruber as not only being all talk and no action but basically a coward as well, unlike Clouseau, Powers and all the others who were usually portrayed as being unafraid to face the dangers involved in their missions even if they were too dumb to realize the magnitude of what they were facing. One even has to wonder just exactly what Richard Dean Anderson himself thought of all this, considering that in many ways this does amount to his MacGyver character (a truly cool cat with a huge fanbase) being completely shredded here and left for dead all while a TV sketch actor like Forte is doing the shredding as he shares the screen with real acting talent like Kilmer, Philippe and Boothe. It even becomes apparent that while Forte could possibly acquit himself in both supporting and character acting parts, his stature as a leading man (even in comedies) is diminished here somewhat by his basic lack of appeal in playing an arrogant asshole (who uses the F word early and often which MacGyver obviously never did even while doing so weakly builds his credibility as a badass) whose worse laid plans only manage to enable Kilmer to achieve his with Forte also insisting at times on acting like a twelve year old kid (or worse, offering to perform gay sex acts to get what he wants) makes for a rather unlikable hero which makes it little to no surprise that when his archnemesis is about to meet his demise (and knows it), we have Kilmer acting spot on with bemusement rather than fear or anger because at least he knows he wonât have to deal with this joke of an action hero anymore which seems to be the main joke of the movie itselfâŠ
7/10