Over the years Saturday Night Live has been responsible for numerous Hollywood feature films. Yet for every Wayne’s World there’s a Night at the Roxbury, for every Blue Brother’s there’s a Blues Brothers 2000. This is not to say that SNL is a dying concept. Stars like Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon and the brilliant Bill Hader all cut their teeth on the long running skecth show. Whilst the noughties has been kind to SNL’s stars the show’s writers have not faired so well. There has been a noticeable lack of SNL spawned features over the last decade, 2000’s avoidable The Ladies Man being the most recent. That is until now!
The character of MacGruber first appeared on SNL back in 2007 played expertly by Will Forte however, the character itself was the creation of director Jorma Taccone and it was his idea to adapt the thirty second skit into a feature length script. Although reluctant at first Forte and SNL writing partner John Soloman then set about writing a script that would appease their persistent director culminating in what SNL cohort Bill Hader describer as a ‘Hard-R comedy that blew his mind’.
The character of MacBruber is, you guessed it, a riff on 80’s Patti and Selma favourite MacGyver and often see’s Ex-Special Operative MacGuyver trying (and failing to diffuse some kind of exploding device only to become distracted by his surroundings. Whilst the skits themselves are just as clever and witty as SNL’s more recognised political satire there’s not much there to fill a solid ninety minutes. With this in mind the film’s success will rely heavily on the ability of Forte and chums to add some dimensions to what has until now been a hilariously one dimensional character.
Forte himself will have to do better than his previous silver screen effort. 2007’s The Brother’s Solomon saw Forte paired up with namesake and fellow big screen under achiever Will Arnett for what turned out to be a comedy of epically bad proportions. Since then Forte has been forced to scrape back credibility by doing guest spots on underrated TV comedies like How I Met Your Mother and Flight of the Conchords as well as movie voice work in the excellent Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This coupled with the popularity of the MacGruber sketches has gifted Forte with a second shot at silver screen success. Of course, like it’s inspiration Angus MacGyver, Forte has a [not so] secret weapon up his sleeve. Said weapon is of course SNL co-star Kristen Wiig who reprises her role as love interest/sidekick Vicki St. Elmo.
Where Forte has floundered at the box office Wiig has blossomed. Since her scene stealing role in Knocked Up has barely stopped working cropping up in some capacity in almost every comedy released since. Most notable however was her more straight laced turn in one of the last years best films, Whip It. Whether Wiig’s burgeoning fan base is yet substantial enough to save Forte from another box office flop remains unproven (although early state side box office figures don’t bode well).
As you’d expect the rest of the cast is a mix of SNL troopers, Hollywood B-Listers and WWE Superstars. Ryan Phillipe, Mya Rudolph, Powers Boothe and Val Kilmer make up the supporting cast and whilst it may not translate into a stellar ensemble all the players have the ability to perform on a good day.
Chances are MacGruber will not reach the dizzy heights of Wayne’s World however, if all those students who spend there afternoons ironically watching MacGyver repeats because ‘it’s just so post modern’ make the effort to visit their local multiplex it may just do alright. Reading it back this preview may not fill you with confidence but I urge you to take a punt on this film! I for one will be there on June 18th because I love MacGruber almost as much as I love Kristen Wiig.
The film is released on June 18th hopefully at your local picture house. Check out the trailer below.
