DVD Reviews

MacGruber – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 9, 2010, 14:53 GMT

$Only one operative has been awarded 16 purple hearts and only one guy is man enough to still sport a mullet. In the 10 years since his fiancée was killed special op MacGruber has sworn off a life of fighting crime with his bare hands. But when he learns his country needs him to find a nuclear warhead that\'s been stolen by his sworn enemy Dieter VonCunth (Val Kilmer) MacGruber$

Only one operative has been awarded 16 purple hearts and only one guy is man enough to still sport a mullet. In the 10 years since his fiancée was killed special op MacGruber has sworn off a life of fighting crime with his bare hands. But when he learns his country needs him to find a nuclear warhead that\'s been stolen by his sworn enemy Dieter VonCunth (Val Kilmer) MacGruber ...more

Another Saturday Night Live character makes the leap to the big screen… and comes up short. I’m sure fans of the MacGyver clone will find hilarity but I only found myself thinking how if I had a raw egg, paper clip, and AA battery that I might find a way out of viewing the film.

Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer) has stolen the world’s most powerful nuclear missile and has nefarious plans for it. Col. Faith (Powers Boothe) takes his assistant Lt. Piper (Ryan Phillippe) track down the only man that can stop Cunth, who just happens to have a grudge against Cunth.

That man is MacGruber (Will Forte) who has supposedly been dead for the last ten years, but he’s really just gone to a monastery to pine over the death of his fiancée Casey (Maya Rudolph). Cunth was the one that killed her so he’s soon out of retirement to “pound some Cunth,” but to do that he’ll have to form a team of mercenaries.

Well, when that doesn’t work out he calls upon former teammate Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), who nurses a crush on Mac, and Lt. Piper, who really doesn’t like Mac and the feeling is mutual.

MacGruber is a bumbling Saturday Night Live character based on the MacGyver television show. In the original show, the mullet wearing MacGyver would make miracles out of bits of stuff you’d find in your aunt’s junk drawer and save the day. MacGruber thinks he’s up to snuff but is really a bumbling idiot.

I haven’t watched SNL for quite a time, but the glowing Betty White lured me back (well I tracked down the episode online) and the MacGruber skit was just painfully unfunny. Maybe that’s part of the gag, but even Betty couldn’t milk laughs out of it. Such is the film, a painfully unfunny experience. I want my 95 minutes back.

I only laughed at one gag and it involved a flashback and Val Kilmer’s hairdo reflecting one of his earlier film roles. A quick jaunt to look at other reviews finds that MacGruber is a polarizing film. You either love it or hate it. I’m falling into the hater’s camp.

MacGruber is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). The film has two cuts, the theatrical (90 minutes) and an unrated (95 minutes) cut. Special features include a commentary with Will Forte, writer/director Jorma Taccone, and writer John Solomon, a 44 second deleted scene, and an 8 minute gag reel (all in high definition).

The disc is also BD-Live and DBox enabled and has the Pocket Blu feature that connects your player to your portable device.

MacGruber was a painful experience for me, but for those that love the sketch they might find something in the film. I found it an unfunny, painful experience. Even the nice transfer couldn’t do anything for me. The short sketches might have a laugh, but when stretched to a feature film length it falls apart.