MACGRUBER red-band trailer full of bad language, worse jokes
MACGRUBER red-band trailer full of bad language, worse jokes
Apr 02
Living in Australia I am lucky enough to be spared the cultural obligation of watching Saturday Night Live. Sure, a lot of good comedians got their start there, but so did a lot of bad ones. In addition, I find the particular SNL brand of humour to be tacky and peculiar, only generating a vague sense of amusement rather than open-mouthed guffaws. A lot of people swear by this show, probably because it’s been playing on their TVs since before they were old enough to get the jokes, but whatever the reason SNL is still popular and still churns out comedians of mixed quality like Will Ferrell, Bill Hader, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Andy Samberg, and so on (compare this with the likes of Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers, who also got their start here, and you’ll understand my mixed feelings).
The latest SNL stablemate to get kicked onto the big screen is Will Forte’s MacGruber character, a parody of TV’s MacGuyver. MacGuyver already got its comeuppance in The Simpsons, so the well of jokes is already running thin, and this latest trailer for the MacGruber movie shows just how diluted the jokes have become. It seems more like a vehicle for SNL-brand yelling and swearing, with very little parody actually going on — and what’s up with the cheap gay joke thrown in for no good reason?
By far the best thing about this trailer is Val Kilmer, playing the super evil Dieter von Cunth (HA, HA) in what feels more like a James Bond spoof than a MacGuyver one. Kristen Wiig shows up as well, and I used to think her delivery was quirky and amusing until I realised she’s a one-trick pony whose delivery rarely changes between films. Ryan Phillipe’s here too, in a departure from his usually serious roles (Crash, Flags Of Our Fathers), though what bearing he might have on the film is beyond my abilities to guess.
So to sum up, this MacGruber trailer is pretty bad. It feels like they’re trying to sell SNL to me (again) instead of a film spoofing an individual TV show or movie style. I don’t dig Will Forte as this MacGruber character, and I find the humour varies between being shrill, amusing, and offensive. It would probably take an editorial MacGuyver to assemble a non-terrible film from what appears to be lacklustre material.
MacGruber hits the US on the 21st of May 2010; no international release dates have yet been set
