MacGruber - D+

In theaters. Rated R, 99 minutes. Trailer.

The latest Saturday Night Live sketch to be made into a movie is the recurring 1 minute MacGyver spoof, MacGruber. On SNL, the MacGruber sketches are almost always hilarious, with their laugh out loud scattalogical loopiness.Starring Will Forte and Kristen Wiig with Ryan Phillipe in support, the film delivers on its promise of no story or plot but is sorely lacking in the laughs that should make up for that. There are probably as many laughs in the film as there would be in 3 MacGruber sketches, and I've come to expect more from Forte, Wiig and their writing team. Click below for more on MG:

The film opens with MacGruber holed up in some sort of self-induced exile, after faking his own death following the murder of his wife at their wedding by Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer). Cunth has now obtained a nuclear bomb and the USA needs MacGruber to stop him. MacGruber reluctantly agrees and assembles a team to go after the bomb. After many trials, they succeed in stopping Cunth and Vicki and MacGruber get married.

I feel like this could've been funny if the writers had explored MacGruber's backstory or taken another angle that allowed the character to do more talking. The best parts of the film are his weird interactions with normal people, especially talking about his past. The writing is lazy and relies too much on f-bombs and unfunny sex jokes to make it work. I went in expecting a dumb comedy with lots of laughs - this is just dumb.

I will admit that the miata, the 80's soundtrack and the fact that he always removes his Blaupunkt car stereo every time he gets out of his car are all funny.