Starring: Will Forte, Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Maya Rudolph
Director: Jorma Taccone (Saturday Night Live)
Running Time: 1 hr 39 min
Release Date: May 21, 2010
Budget: $10 million
Critics’ Thumbs Up: 43%
“…hilarious…” John DeVore, Premiere
“…throbbing flameball of unfunny…” Kyle Smith, New York Post
Juvenile, raunchy and surprisingly violent, this full-length feature film based off the popular Saturday Night Live sketch should have stayed a 90-second skit. In MacGruber, Forte plays the titular dim-witted but cocksure ex-special op who comes out of exile to foil the nuclear plot of his nemesis (Kilmer). Along the way, he is aided by his ditzy love interest (Wiig) and a straight-laced young lieutenant (Phillippe). MacGruber is occasionally funny due to Forte’s deadpan ridiculousness, but this comedy-action spoof tires quickly because of its over-the-top gross-out moments, pointless plot, and the repetitiveness of the same few stupid jokes.
