“Took a break from my uber LOST weekend to go see Macgruber. Actually, if ABC’s site woulda been working properly this afternoon, I’da finnished up pretty much exactly on time. Ah wells. Break for a write up then back to finish ‘er up.
Not sure where to start with this one. Typically on the walk back from the theater (yes, a whole two blocks) I start phrasing things, picking out scenes to point out, etc. This time, I spent the whole five minutes debating whether or not I felt comfortable with describing the film as “”retarded, but the fun kind””. Well shit, I guess I said it, huh? Hope Im not ordered to some sorta sensitivity training for it, but I really do mean it in the best possible, not intentionally offensive way.
Expectations were kinda in that weird limbo, where they’re low but you know they’re low which means you’re likely to enjoy it rather than be disappointed cause you’re expecting to not enjoy it, so they’re kinda raised a bit. Follow that? Yeah me neither. But the movie fit perfectly into that.
I think it ultimately knew its place in the grand scheme of movie-dom. Wasn’t trying too hard, wasn’t pretending, just was. And between the awkward and the unfunny were some pretty classic and clever gems, that were all very much appreciated, cause again, you weren’t quite expecting them, but yet you sorta were cause you weren’t. Sorry, did it again.
But yeah, def got a few laugh out loud moments from me, and some serious WTF ones too. It helps that it was an action comedy, cause action comedy is typically my genre of choice.
I was also quite impressed with how well it did translate from SNL. Normally the concern there is how do you take 3 minutes (or in Macgruber’s case 30 seconds) and stretch it into 90 minutes. The answer here is you give all the set up that would normally lead into those thirty seconds that no one has ever gotten to see. Then you play out those 30 seconds very much like the SNL skit–complete with Kristin Wiig kinda changing her voice a bit to match her usual “”30 seconds Macgruber!””. Then you conclude. And you kick some ass and take some names along the way, of course.
Will Forte definitely owns this character, and its great to see him have fun with it. I read in EW that it took weeks of the writers pitching the Macgruber character before he even accepted it for SNL. But Im so glad that he did cause he does it so \m/ well. What I was most excited about going in, or I guess I should say who I was most excited about going in, was Ryan Phillippe. Thought he was an interesting choice, and if nothing else would provide some wonderful eye candy if the movie sucked. He kept his cool playing the straight character quite well. Woulda been easy to lose it around the wackiness of the rest of the cast. Points for Val Kilmer as the baddie and Powers Boothe as the head good guy as well.
Yeah so if you’re a fan of the sketch, check it out. Preferably while drunk, cause I think it’d go over even better that way. If you’re not a fan, then you’re just not gonna be into it. The crowd at the theater was small, but fierce. There was much laughter coming from the fans.
Macgruber – \m/ \m/ \m/