Audiences might wonder how the writers of “MacGruber” managed to successfully stretch a three-minute Saturday Night Live sketch into an entertaining 99-minute film. The answer is: They didn’t.
Only minutes into the film, we are introduced to the villain: Dieter Von Cunth (yes, the name is pronounced how you think it’s pronounced). The mention of the villain’s name elicits a chuckle from the audience the first time. The next 89 times, it does not.
In a painfully simplistic story line, MacGruber (Will Forte) returns from retirement and self-imposed seclusion to help the government find a stolen nuclear warhead. MacGruber believes Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) — the man who blew up his fiancée at the altar — is responsible for the crime.
After a montage assembling a team of crime fighters (played by WWE Wrestlers), MacGruber, in his unfailing incompetence, accidentally blows them up in a van with homemade C4 explosive.
From there, MacGruber is forced to work with the young, inexperienced Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and a friend of his late fiancée, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig).
Forte as MacGruber looks lost and out of place on the big screen. The character of MacGruber is completely unlikable.
Wiig’s usual “shtick” works in smaller film roles and occasionally on SNL but does not translate well into a leading role in a full-length film. Wiig should stick with cameos such as those she has done in successful comedies such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Knocked Up.”
The 80s television drama MacGyver, which MacGruber is allegedly a spoof of, is best known for the title character’s ability to essentially take dental floss and chewing gum and turn them into a working bomb.
Other than MacGruber’s mullet, the similarities between the two characters are virtually non-existent. When MacGruber does finally get around to scraping together materials, the sequence culminates in MacGruber stripping naked and prancing around with celery sticking out of his hindquarters.
At the end of the film this “joke” is repeated by Phillippe’s character, but is done by what is obviously a body double. Refusing to stick celery up his rear-end will hopefully help Phillippe manage to hold onto a shred of dignity despite his career landing in a pile of “MacGruber.”
“MacGruber” seems to have one golden rule: If a joke doesn’t work the first time, repeat it over and over and over again. The writers must not have realized that for the “Comedy Rule of 3’s” to work, the joke has to be funny the first time.
In one of the MacGruber’s first scenes, he proclaims, “I’m gonna pound some Cunth.” That statement, or a variation of that statement, is used repeatedly. Get it? The villain’s name is Cunth.
Fans of farce, 80s television, action films, Saturday Night Live or comedy in general would be wise to steer clear of “MacGruber.”
