MACGRUBER REVIEW.

SNL movies usually don't go over well. With the exception of The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World, they haven't been very successful or memorable. Sadly, to me, SNL has gone in that direction as well. I stopped watching SNL around junior high school, with the exception of some reruns. Occasionally, I'll see somebody I know watching it and I'll peep in, or something on the show will become popular on the internet. Some of it would be really funny and make me wonder what I've been missing. Other times I'll see something that makes me think "Oh, that's why I stopped watching." I recall a There Will Be Blood parody skit that had Mad TV-like suckitude, turning the "I Drink Your Milkshake" catchphrase (which I love) to a punny documentary show for the Food Network. Lame.

One of the skits that'll occasionally bring me back around are the MacGruber sketches. Simple premise, but they make me laugh. So when I read there was a movie being made of the character, I was skeptical. I thought "how could they take a simple series of sketches like MacGruber and make a movie out of it?"

To a degree, they actually pulled it off. Unlike most of the movies based on SNL skits, they don't have a series of sketches sewn together loosely by a so-called plot. The movie actually tries to be a standalone movie, and I can respect it for that. So much so that when they bring back jokes from the skits, it doesn't make you groan. It feels more like "OK, you deserved that one."

But that's not to say this is a great movie. There are some decent jokes and the story holds up okay. But there are some juvenile jokes that gets reactions ranging from "Wow, that was a misfire," to "I wonder if it's too late for a refund." But then a joke or plot point comes up that turns me back around with a good laugh.

What really attracted me to the skits and the movie is the fact that I like Will Forte. I'm even one of those guys who thought The Brothers Solomon was okay. He makes me laugh. Not so much on Saturday Night Live, but more-so on shows like Clone High and Sit Down Shut Up. His character on SDSU turned out to be my favorite on the whole series. He may be a better voice actor than a regular actor. This movie further proves so because there are times where its obvious he's having way too much fun to really act. I'm not saying he's horrible by any means. There are times where he just has too much fun.

In the end, there's good things and bad things about the movie. Good? Occasional big laughs and it doesn't try to be a 90-minute skit (I'm looking at you, Night At The Roxbury). The negative? With every good joke in the movie, there's 2 that are a misfire. The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World are still the best SNL movies. But MacGruber places behind them. And not like "Well, I guess this movie's the next best, but it still sucks." If you like action comedies, this movie is more of a rental.