Friday, 18 June 2010

MacGruber review

MacGruber (15, 99 mins)
Director: Jorma Taccone
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

A Saturday Night Live sketch stretched to feature length and almost to snapping point, MacGruber is inspired by the resourceful 80s TV action hero, MacGyver. MacGruber (Will Forte) thinks he can take out the bad guys with some dental floss and a stick of celery, the joke being that he’s completely useless but somehow manages to get the job done, a la Inspector Clouseau, and his limitless stupidity is the source of most of the chuckles. He’s brought out of retirement to tackle Val Kilmer’s Russian arms dealer, whose character name is dangerously close to a very bad word and therefore unrepeatable here, although rest assured no one in the film squanders an opportunity to say it for a cheap laugh. That’s indicative of the flaws of a movie that’s uneven and often goes for the easy joke rather than something truly clever, but it’s fun for fans of cheesy action films will who appreciate the digs at the likes of Rambo and Lethal Weapon.

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