MacGruber
I really want to like Will Forte. I used to think he had comedic talent that hasn’t been properly utilized since he was on Saturday Night Live during a period when the writing was arguably at it’s weakest. And the storyline for his character on 30 Rock was unbearably annoying. Unfortunately MacGruber made my change my position.
I was led to believe that MacGruber was some sort of sleeper comedy movie that bombed in the theaters because the main stream audiences in middle America didn’t get it. I heard comedians on podcasts say thinks like “It’s actually very funny.” They are lying unless your definition of a funny movie is one whose humor is based solely on bodily functions.
MacGruber is obviously Will Forte‘s attempt at making his own Zoolander: A quick moving movie featuring a dim-witted main character and his group of unlikely compatriots as they are recruited to save the world from some foreign threat. But unlike Ben Stiller‘s writing, the jokes in MacGruber are either long setups that don’t payoff or 5th grade level jokes about dicks and pooping. When Forte and his writing team manage to come up with an honestly funny joke they use it over and over until the viewer is just left annoyed.
Yes, I chuckled a few times. Yes, Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph are funny in their limited roles (Ryan Phillippe, not so much). And yes, I was surprised that an hour and a half had passed so quickly. But when there are so many comedies out there that are so much better don’t waste your time with this one.
