It has been quite a long time since I have watched a movie based upon a skit from Saturday Night Live. To be honest with you it has been a long time since I have even watched a complete episode of the show itself. Wayne’s World would have to be the last film adaptation of a skit from SNL that I can honestly remember watching and completely enjoying the experience. However, the film was released back in the early 1990s and here we are nearly twenty years later with the arrival of another SNL skit based movie being released in the movie theaters. Is anyone still into watching these movies? There have been several films starring comedians from the popular weekend show, but not very many of those movies are actually based upon a skit from the show. An all time personal favorite adaptation to the movie screen would be The Blues Brothers (1980). That film would have to be marked as the pinnacle of the SNL films as far back as I can remember. The other adaptations include Coneheads, A Night at the Roxbury, It’s Pat, Stuart Saves His Family, and Superstar. Nearly all of these films have contributed to a one particular coined phrase that is floating around the internet: The SNL Stigma. Throwing around such a phrase in a nonchalant manner would be a short hand way of implying that the producers of these film adaptations are finding their hard work and labor to be nothing more than a wasted effort after the film lands right into the gutter where just about everyone will forget about it. There are only two movies on their list of films that I have truly enjoyed watching (Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World), so it would be a bit premature if I were to be pumped up and excited about watching the latest installment of SNL adaptations.MacGruber is based upon a simplistic formula of comedic errors. The primary character constantly boasts about his talent for being a highly skilled handyman while frequently stumbling into numerous situations, which would involve the use of his self-proclaimed skills in order to defuse a life-threatening situation. The result is consistently guaranteed to end in comedic failure. On the television show, this skit would usually be clocked at a running time of five minutes or less. In light of this bit of information, would it be possible to have the skit stretched out to a running length of nearly ninety minutes? As proven by the creation of the MacGruber film it has been proven, but is not necessary something that has been expected by the large amount of people who have vocalized their growing disinterest in the show over the last few years. There is an intriguing bit of news that I recently heard. There is a rumor flying around on the internet that a film adaptation of the MacGyver television show is in the works with a possible release date set for sometime in 2011. This marks a particular moment of interest to me, because I consider it unusually interesting how a television comedy skit, which is a satirical representation of a popular television show from twenty years ago, is adapted into a feature length film before the twenty year old television show chalks up its own adaptation. Ultimately, I would imagine that it all boils down to the carnivorous business plan that thrives upon earning a profit by riding the successful coattails of another popular project. After randomly mentioning such a random observation, I shall now move on to the review of the MacGruber film itself.
There was a certain amount of effort on my part to be as unbiased about the film as I possibly could muster up. I wanted to sit down in the movie theater and view the film as a completely self-enclosed storyline. It would be tremendously impossible to separate it from any possible outside influence since it is supposed to be a comedy spoof adapted from a television skit. The biggest concern prior to the start of the film was the plausible risk of being prematurely exposed to all of the funniest moments in the film being promoted within all of the television advertisements and the promotional trailers. It would be a safe presumption to say that there is more funny material available in the movie without being completely ruined by all the promotional videos that the audience may have been exposed to watching before sitting down to see the actual movie. However, the quirky humor in the film is consistently equal in the film as it is within the commercials and promotional trailer. However, what separates the movie from the television skit would be the increased amount of vulgarity that infiltrates the humor of just about every scene. The heavy artillery of foul language such as the f-bomb and alternative ways of saying crap would usually be banned from basic cable television in America, but within the movie, the characters find ways of cluttering their vocabulary with such colorful language that would make every conservative viewer blush. However, I highly doubt that average conservative view would even bother sitting down to watch this movie anyway.
As the case may be for a large number of comedy films my expectations are usually set at a lower standard than for a dramatic film that would possibly be deserving of an admirable award. Within my own perspective, I would classify MacGruber to be a quality example of a B-Class movie, if not pushing down the C-Class level. This is not entirely a bad thing for a movie, since it can still be seen as an enjoyable form of entertainment. However, the point I would like to bring to your attention is the existence of two actors who have made frequent appearances in A-Class films suddenly showing up in a prominent role within this film. What happened to you, Val Kilmer? What is with the sudden desire to play a super rich, maniacal villain in a comedy film? Was it the paycheck? In addition, I must ask about the decision of having Ryan Phillippe dance around the screen with no pants, no underwear, and a stalk of celery protruding from between his butt cheeks. Has his career really fallen to such an all time low after breaking up with Reese Witherspoon in 2008? How sad it must be for him.
By the end of the movie, there was a certain amount of personal expectations, which were fulfilled. Considering that I thought the movie would be an utter disaster there were a few moments in the film that are enjoyable and entertaining. However, I was not laughing aloud very often, and several of the jokes provoked a chuckle or two at best. Although my own personal humor was not in complete alignment with the film, I have noted the huge amount of laughter from the audience throughout a large portion of the movie. The style of humor has been lowered down to the high school level to attract a large audience base, but it has not placed an appropriate mark upon my style of humor. As would be appropriate for writing up a film review the time has come to offer a proper recommendation. With all honesty, I would only recommend this film to those viewers who are a fan of the MacGruber skits on Saturday Night Live or enjoy a roundabout comedy with a few jokes with scat and sex references mixed into the storyline. The film offers a nice change up for my day, but in a short amount of time, I can easily forget about this movie and just move on to another one.
