"MacGruber" Red Band Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

It's been a very long time since a film based on a "Saturday Night Live" sketch was any good. The two "Wayne's World" films from the early '90s were the last solid ones, and some would even argue that even those were bad and that there hasn't been a good one since "The Blues Brothers" in 1980.

It's been nearly an entire decade since another attempt, but they're giving it another go with "MacGruber," a film based on the sketch of the same name starring Will Forte as a secret agent tasked with disarming bombs but who would also get distracted and let them explode. The sketch, which, to be fair, I've only seen one or two times, wasn't very good, but the film seems to be a definite improvement and the plot has obviously been extended significantly.

The plot follows MacGruber as he attempts to bring down the sinister plot of his nemesis Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), who has stolen a nuclear warhead. He recruits Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillipe) and Vicky St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig, also in the original sketches) to help him.

The film looks reasonably funny. I haven't actually watched an episode of SNL in ages, so I'm not as familiar with the characters as I was with something like "Superstar" or "The Ladies Man," but it definitely looks better than both of those. Forte seems great as MacGruber, and the supporting cast (which also includes Powers Boothe as an army colonel and Bill Hader in an unknown role) is pretty solid. Kilmer looks especially hilarious as his stereotypical villain.

Really, this could go one of two ways--it maintains a level of sincerity while still being over-the-top and hysterical, not unlike "Wayne's World" or even "Austin Powers," or it just repeats similar jokes over and over, becomes too much of a parody, and just ends up being tired and stupid. Based on the trailer it seems like the former, and this is one comedy I'm surprised to actually be excited for.


"MacGruber" is set for release on April 23, 2010. Trailer is below. Thoughts?