Macgruber

A few years ago when that video came out about David Hasselhoff being a drunk and trying to eat a cheeseburger off his bathroom floor, of course Saturday Night Live had to mock it somehow without directly making fun of Hasselhoff’s alcoholism directly. So instead there was a sketch in which a “MacGuyver” parody character gets increasingly more drunk until he's eating a cheeseburger on the floor all the while letting a bomb go off killing him and his sidekicks. That is the origins of “MacGruber,” so thank the Hoff, America. Since then there have been dozens of sketches with MacGruber and somehow, someway the good people at Saturday Night Live were able to stretch this premise that was thin even for a two minute sketch into a full length feature film.

If you've read my other reviews then you know my litmus test for comedies is really easy: did it make me laugh? The answer here is hell yes it did. This movie is incredibly stupid, but it's full of good jokes and gags even if there are a few bombs (pun accepted). Will Forte is absolutely hilarious, and Kristen Wiig is the best thing around in comedy. But for some reason this movie got trashed by critics and did not do well at the box office. Here are my theories why that is. While I am just barely old enough to remember “MacGuyver,” young people who respond to edgy comedy probably don't. A lot of people probably didn't get the parody and the satire because they never cared about the source material. Also, at the beginning of the film it already starts with MacGruber in hiding. If there were one scene at the beginning to establish who MacGruber is and what he does and what his deal is then the audience who never saw the SNL sketch would have some context.

Whatever criticism there is for this film it passes my ultimate test which is that I laughed consistently throughout the film. It's an action spoof; it reminded me a lot of “Team America” or “The Naked Gun” movies. So if you like those you might like this. I liked it, go see it, prepare to laugh.