Released in Theaters: 5/21/2010
Macgruber, directed by Lonely Island member and SNL writer Jorma Taccone and written by Will Forte, John Solomon and Taccone, is based on an SNL MacGyver spoof, and is transformed into an action comedy. This is comedy of the most ridiculous variety. It is vulgar, silly, and at times balls to the wall bonkers. It also keeps you laughing at a steady pace mixing in entertaining action sequences with hilarious writing. The Lonely Island first got a chance with Hot Rod, which was directed by Akiva Schaffer, but that movie was written by Pam Brady for Will Ferrell and only received ‘The Dudes’ style through slight script changes and editing. Macgruber on the other hand is straight Lonely Island ridiculous writing and truly shows how funny and messed up this comedy team can be when given the chance.
In the 10 years since his fiancée was killed, special op MacGruber played by Will Forte has sworn off a life of fighting crime with his bare hands. But when he learns that his country needs him to find a nuclear warhead that’s been stolen by his sworn enemy, Dieter Von Cunth played by Val Kilmer, MacGruber figures he’s the only one tough enough for the job. Assembling an elite team of experts–Lt. Dixon Piper played by Ryan Phillippe and Vicki St. Elmo played by Kristen Wiig. MacGruber then leads his team on a mission to hunt down Cunth and bring him to justice.
I was never a huge fan of Forte on SNL and I thought the Macgruber skit was kind of lame, but I have been a die-hard Lonely Island fan and had faith in their comedy. They got the job done and produced a comedy that will surely go down as the most outrageous of the year (Yes, even in a year that has brought us Hot Tub Time Machine). Forte is amazing as Macgruber, he is an asshole, idiot, and ladies man all in one. He had me in tears near the beginning of the film and from then on I don’t think I stopped laughing at a word that came out of his mouth. The supporting cast is also very good, the combination of Wiig’s humor and Phillipe’s seriousness fit well, and Kilmer played a great bad guy. If I had any problems with this movie it was the length, I mean comedies are suppose to be short but this one is 90 minutes long and I kind of wanted to keep laughing some more for my 10 bucks that I paid at the door. Other then that and a few jokes you can see coming a mile away, but I still enjoyed them so it wasn’t too much of a negative.
The R-rated nature of this film mixed with Forte’s brilliant delivery of jokes and the asinine writing all mixed to perfection. It was so vulgar I was in shock at some of the stuff they got away with. The director himself said that he thought they were going to get an NC-17 rating. I mean c’mon shoving celery up your ass as a distraction, using your partner as a humans shield, dropping F-bombs after every sentence, asking your superior if he wanted to suck your dong, and not to mention making the main villain’s last name CUNTH. That is the work of true comic brilliance, every time Dieter Von Cunth was mentioned I giggled out loud. There is also two of the funniest sex scenes ever put on screen in this film. I was almost in tears laughing because it was so funny.
“Now it’s time to pound some Cunth.”
The Lonely Island members may not get another chance to write or direct a film, considering that this film bombed big time opening weekend and will probably drop off the top ten this weekend. Don’t let that fool you, these guys know comedy, I mean they are the ones that brought us Jizz In my Pants and Dick in a Box. Now with a feature length R-rated film they brought us Macgruber, sure to be the most underrated comedy of the year.
IMDB: 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 48%
Moviewiseguys: 8.5/10
