The Current Cinema

In which I find the "MacGruber" movie, MacGruber, well, pretty fucking funny. And review it, at MSN Movies. 

Comments

[JC]

This was actually sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes after seven reviews, but now that a number of mainstream reviews have come out (not as many as you'd think, though, so I imagine it wasn't actually pre-screened for critics-at-large), it's about in the 50% Positive range. Impossible to judge from the TV spots and PG trailers, as they surely don't include any of the movie's most risque material. Still, Forte and Wiig definitely commit wholeheartedly to whatever material they're given, so it might be worth a look once it makes it to DVD.

I did notice, on imdb, some pro wrestlers in the cast. Any of them given much to do, or are they just cannon fodder, Glenn? I'm particularly wondering about that spiky-blonde-haired guy named Chris Jericho...

[Glenn Kenny]

@ JC: I don't want to give anything away, but your instincts concerning cannon fodder are more accurate than you know. The joke is a funny one, though.

[JC]

Heh. Well, I know how the premise of MacGruber works, so I can image where it goes.

[Mark Slutsky]

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

The scene where the root of MacGruber and Val Kilmer guy's enmity is explained killed me. (As did the car stereo running gag.)

[lazarus]

But was it better than fellow action movie parody Hot Fuzz? Because I laughed harder during that film than most in recent memory.

[Glenn Kenny]

Oh, no. "MacGruber" is NOT better than "Hot Fuzz." I actually don't think almost anything is better than "Hot Fuzz." And I'm not just saying that because Edgar Wright is my Facebook friend. "Hot Fuzz" is just...unbelievably great, and has a whole lot more heart than "MacGruber." Of course "MacGruber"'s heartlessness is part of its point.

Yes, Mark, that gag in particular is great, and emblematic of what I was talking about. Dana Stevens of "Slate" was sitting in front of me, and when the you-know-what joke in that bit came up, as I was laughing I also thought, "So I guess she's gonna like this one better than 'Knocked Up.'" I haven't checked to see if I was right though.

[Jason M.]

http://www.slate.com/id/2254531/

Dana doesn't seem to be a fan, Glenn.

Also, "Hot Fuzz" is without a doubt one of the greatest action comedies of all time. When Simon Pegg rides into the sleepy little English hamlet at the end and it all starts going down, I was laughing so hard I had trouble breathing.

[Glenn Kenny]

Thanks Jason; it's funny; Stevens' review makes a few of the same points as mine...except I like the film a lot more than she did. I kind of can't believe I'm still holding a grudge against her for the summer of "Knocked Up" abortion complaints. And yet I am content that I have done right. How odd.

[Fuzzy Bastard]

A good movie based on an SNL sketch? That's... almost unimaginable. I mean, A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY is only the most recent in the long and ugly procession of broken, shattered bodies that is SNL movies... CONEHEADS. IT'S PAT. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr...

[JW]

Comedies rarely go as far as I'd like them to go. Thus I found MACGRUBER's willingness to be disturbing extremely refreshing. While MACGRUBER may not be as subversive as FEMALE TROUBLE, in its own cockeyed way it is a very honest movie - honest about what a psychopath its title character is, honest about the genre it is parodying. The scene where MacGruber fucks his murdered wife's ghost, culminating in her sighing "I shot, too," is just a perfect sendup of the weird, queasy sentimentality of many action films.

[Kevin J. Olson]

I agree that the film isn't on the same level as Hot Fuzz which was spoofing so much more than the current action genre. MacGruber seems more interested in riffing on those C-grade, late night Cinemax action films starring Jeff Speakman or Dolph Lundgren. It's actually quite appropriate that MacGruber is coming out the same summer as The Expendables. Oh, and watching Val Kilmer ham it up was one of the best things about the movie.

Glad to see such an established critic like this movie much in the same way I did. Great review, Glenn.

[bill]

"You know that's the bloke we done for speeding earlier??"