When a nuclear weapon gets stolen by the evil Cunth it is up to one man to save America. MacGruber is the man for the job, unfortunately he has given up his life of action after the death of his wife at their wedding. MacGruber is a well known man, he is a Navy Seal, Green Beret and Army Ranger and fights with his bear hands. Cunth is his arch enemy as he was the one who killed his wife.
MacGruber gets the call but he says he is not able to do the job, that is until he finds out who is behind the stolen nuclear weapon. He agree to do the job and find the weapon on the condition he can pick his own team. MacGruber sets about getting his team together but then tragedy strikes when he ends up blowing them all up in his van. With no team and weapons behind him how can MacGruber save America from Cunth now?
I had never even heard of this film before spotting the DVD in Tesco, I read the back and it sounded quite fun so both me and hubby decided to give it a watch. Unfortunately it was not as good as we had hoped. The storyline was good and could have been developed slightly more to make it that little bit more enjoyable and for me a lot of the humour was daft rather than funny.
The acting was not the best, the role of MacGruber was played by Will Forte and I felt he did a decent job with the role for the majority of the film. He did give us some depth but I just felt he seemed a little wooden with some of his delivery. We got to see lots of sides to his character and I loved trying to get to know him from the flash backs we got shown. He was overly sentimental at times and this did not give the desired comedy effects, it gave more of a desperation and needy element to the character. He did have some good comedy timing and this was mainly when he had someone to bounce off. When trying to deliver good one liners on his own and do visual comedy it seemed to fall flat. I found his appearance was not very good either. The other role which was also quite good was that of Cunth. He was played by Val Kilmer, he too had some good lines and delivered them well but I felt he needed to have the chance to develop his character more. He looked good and suited the style of the film, I think he needed slightly more screen time though.
We had some good support roles and my favourite was that of Piper, played by Ryan Phillippe. He was the only ‘normal’ person in the film and he did come across as the most grounded. The role of Vicki was a strange one, she was made to be a bit of a comedy element in the film and I did not like what they did with her. She gave some very cheesy lines and I felt uneasy when she would be on screen with MacGruber.
The film was supposed to have an 80’s feel about it, this was very apparent from the clothes and props which we had. I felt the mullet MacGruber had was completely unnecessary and made him just look daft and not funny in the slightest. Some of the props were actually quite funny though and I did get a good feel of the 80’s watching. I think they could have helped this out by giving it a stronger soundtrack. We had some massive songs in this decades and I felt they could have made good use of them in the film. As it was I felt the soundtrack was actually quite weak.
The stunts which were used were good and of a good standard, they were very in keeping with the style of the film and were pretty well made. I thought the guns and fights were all realistic and I did enjoy watching them especially as the majority of them had a comedy element thrown in. There is a lot of violence in the film and some of it is very bloody but if you watch with a light and open mind as this is supposed to be a comedy then you should not be offended by any of it.
I think the humour was quite mixed, some of the visual gags were actually quite funny, I found the funnier ones were the ones which did not include MacGruber as he just made his visual gags look daft. We also got a lot of good one liners and I did at times have a good chuckle. I think this film came across as slightly undecided at times, for some of the film we had a quite serious feel and for others it was more of a comedy element and I don’t think it fully worked. They really needed to make up their mind before making the film as to which outcome they wanted. A lot more humour and good jokes would have meant better viewing.
The DVD which we have does not have any bonus features included on it but this is no loss to me as I am not a fan of them. The running time of the film is 1 hour and 35 minutes and I did find this was quite long enough. The rate is a 15 as there is a lot of strong language and comic bloody violence and I do definitely agree with the rate. The DVD is priced at £5 in Tesco and I would not recommend paying any more for it.
I am giving this film 3 stars as there were some good moments in it. The story was average but had a lot of potential and some of the actors were quite good. There are a few good laughs but whether or not I would recommend this film is another matter. I would recommend waiting for this to be shown on the television and not wasting money on the DVD.
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