"MACGRUBER!!! He made a movie that's not really worth watching MACGRUBER!!!!"

Signs the movie you are about to watch sucks:

1) The guy that rips your ticket smirks as he says: “enjoy your movie”
2) There are 8 people in the theatre; 1/4 of them came with you.
3) Everyone you know who’s seen it says it sucks.
4) The Previews beforehand feature this, this and this.

MacGruber had all of these signs going in, plus it was playing in Theatre 5, Death Row for movies playing in Fredericton, only two weeks after its release.** All of this aside, I was curious. Maybe I’m just a sucker for punishment, but I had to know for myself.

MacGruber, as a recurring sketch on SNL, makes me laugh; mainly because of Will Forte. Not everyone likes him, but I find his dead-pan delivery hilarious. The sketch works because it’s only about 5 minutes long. The film, however, is 88 minutes.

I’m not going to lie, MacGruber made me laugh, but the laughs came way too sporadically for a movie of its nature. When jokes start getting repeated, it gets old…especially when it was old the first time (MacGruber’s nemesis in the film, played by a bloated, hammy Val Kilmer, is named Dieter Von Cunth…think about it) The story doesn’t really matter in a film like this, but the script has to be sharp to keep my interest in between laughs and MacGruber just didn’t do that

The actors do what they can, and as I said there are some genuinely funny things in this movie. It was nice to see Ryan Phillipe going for some laughs as opposed to being Mr. Serious all the time; I’ve already expressed my dissatisfaction with Val Kilmer (what happened to this guy!?). Kristen Wiig & Will Forte have a good chemistry and great comic timing and ability; it’s just too bad they couldn’t have shown a bit more of that here.

Overall, the experience wasn’t a total wash. MacGruber is not the worst SNL movie (It’s Pat) nor is it anywhere near the best (Wayne’s World). I wasn’t let down because my expectations were so low going in, there was no way to climb but up; after seeing the previews for Resident Evil: Afterlife & Piranha 3D, nothing I was going to watch could’ve possibly been worse.

2 Dented Bumpers.*

*Crash’s Film Rating Legend:
5 DB’s -- Freaking Fantastic! (a rating that’s not easily attained.)
4–4.5 DB’s -- Great: It’s worth seeing again/owning.
3–3.5 DB’s -- Decent – Good (I’d watch it again on cable)
2–2.5 DB’s -- Meh; (possibly had potential, but I won’t watch it again)
1DB -- Awful; I want my money back.

Anything less is not even worth downloading illegally


** As of this posting, MacGruber is no longer playing in Fredericton. (it played for 2 weeks)