| MacGruber | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Jorma Taccone |
| Produced by | Lorne Michaels John Goldwyn Ryan Kavanaugh Seth Meyers Akiva Schaffer |
| Written by | Jorma Taccone Will Forte John Solomon |
| Starring | Will Forte Kristen Wiig Ryan Phillippe Powers Boothe Maya Rudolph Val Kilmer |
| Music by | Matthew Compton |
| Cinematography | Brandon Trost |
| Editing by | Jamie Gross |
| Studio | Relativity Media Michaels-Goldwyn |
| Distributed by | Rogue |
| Release date(s) | May 21, 2010 |
| Running time | 90 minutes 95 minutes (Unrated cut) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million[1] |
| Box office | $9,322,895[2] |
MacGruber is a 2010 American action comedy film based on the Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, itself a parody of action-adventure television series MacGyver. The film stars Will Forte in the title role; Kristen Wiig as his love interest/partner, Vicki St. Elmo; Ryan Phillippe as Dixon Piper, a young lieutenant who becomes part of MacGruber's team; Val Kilmer as the aptly named villain, Dieter von Cunth; and Maya Rudolph as MacGruber's dead wife, Casey.
The film was released on May 21, 2010, after being pushed from its original April 23 date.
Contents |
In eastern Siberia's Dzhugdzhur Mountains, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) and his men take control of the X-5 missile, which has a nuclear warhead. On the other side of the world Col. Jim Faith (Powers Boothe) and Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) are searching for former Green Beret, Navy SEAL and Army Ranger MacGruber in Ecuador. The two men find MacGruber (Will Forte) meditating in a chapel, and try to convince him to return to the United States in an effort to retrieve the warhead. MacGruber refuses; later that night, MacGruber explodes into a fit of rage after a flashback where Cunth killed his would-be wife, Casey Fitzpatrick (Maya Rudolph), at their wedding; he then accepts the Colonel's offer.
After arriving at The Pentagon and having a heated conversation with Faith and Piper, MacGruber decides he will form his own team to pursue Cunth, declining the offer to build a team around Piper. MacGruber successfully recruits all but his long-time friend Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) and Brick Hughes (Paul Wight) - MacGruber initially recruits Hughes, but upon discovering he is gay, crosses his name off his list. MacGruber and his team meet Faith and Piper on a tarmac. Upon being asked where his team is, MacGruber responds that they are in the van along with his homemade C-4 explosives. The van promptly explodes, killing the team. MacGruber is distraught over the loss of the team and is promptly removed from the Cunth case. In a one-on-one conversation with Piper, MacGruber convinces him to form a new team. Vicki also arrives, completing MacGruber's team.
The group travels to Cunth's nightclub in Las Vegas. MacGruber gets on stage and announces who he is, his intentions, and where he will be the next day. The team sets up a sting operation with Vicki portraying MacGruber. Hoss Bender (Andy Mackenzie), one of Cunth's henchmen, attacks the van MacGruber and Piper are in. MacGruber tells Piper to pass him an Incredi-Mop, which he uses to turn the ignition key and hit the gas pedal, running down Bender. With Vicki disguised as Bender and Piper disguised as MacGruber, the team breaks into a warehouse to stop von Cunth from getting the passcodes to operate the rocket. MacGruber distracts the guards by walking around naked with a piece of celery clenched between his buttocks. Piper manages to kill most of the men inside, but is unable to stop the transfer of the pass codes. MacGruber and the team go to a charity event Cunth is holding. After a heated conversation, Cunth's guards throw MacGruber out.
After the fiasco, MacGruber returns to the Pentagon where Faith reprimands him. MacGruber and Piper relax and drink after being taken off the case. Soldiers attack but MacGruber uses Piper as a human shield to survive; Vicki and MacGruber escape. Piper survives due to the fact that he was wearing a bulletproof vest, but leaves, disgusted that MacGruber used him as protection. Vicki and MacGruber return to Vicki's house where the two have sex. Upset, MacGruber goes to his wife's grave in shame, but he sees her ghost, who gives her blessing to allow MacGruber to pursue Vicki. MacGruber then has sex with the ghost of his wife on her tombstone.
Upon returning to Vicki's house, MacGruber discovers that Cunth kidnapped her, and realizes what Cunth's plan is: to bomb the State of the Union address. Cunth calls MacGruber to gloat, but MacGruber traces the call. MacGruber meets up with Piper to save Vicki. The two men make their way into Cunth's compound, in large part due to MacGruber's propensity for ripping throats. Soldiers capture MacGruber and Piper and bring them to Vicki and the missile. The group manages to overpower Cunth and his men and MacGruber handcuffs Cunth to a handrail. MacGruber removes the nuclear component and disables the missile launch before his team escapes as the missile explodes.
Six months later, MacGruber and Vicki are getting married. Also present at the wedding as ghosts are his dead team members Vernon Freedom (Alvin Burke, Jr.), Tug Phelps (Dalip Singh), Tut Beemer (Mark Henry), and Tanker Lutz (Glen Jacobs). Out of the corner of his eye, MacGruber spots a disfigured Cunth, thought dead, with an RPG. MacGruber saves Vicki, and battles Cunth before throwing him off a cliff behind the altar, shooting him with a machine gun and launching a grenade as he falls, incinerating the corpse, and finally urinating on it at the foot of the cliff.
The end credits show MacGruber and Vicki's wedding party, where they eventually have sex on the dance floor. After the credits, MacGruber sits in a tree, playing a saxophone.
On the June 1, 2009 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Will Forte announced that MacGruber had been greenlit and production was to begin on August 9, with Fallon adding on the July 29th episode that it would be filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[3] Cameos by WWE wrestlers Chris Jericho, The Big Show, Mark Henry, Kane, MVP and The Great Khali and actor Derek Mears, were later confirmed.[4][5]
Although the film had a release date of May 21, 2010, the film was originally scheduled for an April 23 release.
Prior to the film's release, MacGruber stirred controversy with Lee David Zlotoff, creator of the TV series MacGyver, whose contract stipulates he retains the right to a film version of the TV series. In 2010, his lawyer sent several cease-and-desist letters and met with litigators to determine a course of action. No suit has been brought.[6]
Pictures were leaked on the Internet on January 6, 2010. A two-minute red band trailer was released on January 19, 2010, and the next day, January 20, a green band trailer was released.[7]
On April 19, 2010, Forte, Wiig, and Phillippe hosted WWE Raw from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey in character to promote the film.[8]
Phillippe guest starred on Saturday Night Live on April 17, 2010, and made reference to the film's shooting in his opening monologue.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 47% of all critics have given the film a positive review based on 123 reviews, with an average score of 5.1/10. However, the "Top Critics" scored MacGruber 29% positive, based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 4.4/10. Critics' consensus concludes the movie "too often mistakes shock value for real humor, but MacGruber is better than many SNL films – and better than it probably should be."[9] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 43/100 based on 21 reviews from mainstream critics.[10]
Some reviewers were more supportive of the film. Chris Tilly of IGN UK gave the episode 3 out of 5 stars saying "When the film is funny, it's very funny."[11] Jon Peters of KillerFilm gave 3 out of 5 stars saying "It's consistently funny and it didn't need gray tape to do it. It's funny in the old Airplane! humor, mixed with a little Mel Brooks, type of way [...] But none of this would work, if it wasn't for Will Forte's brilliant blend of witless charm and dumb ass heroics."[12]
Others were less kind. The Rochester, Minnesota Post-Bulletin's Med City Movie Guy, for example, called MacGruber the worst film of 2010, saying: "If you've ever seen someone walking a dog and wondered what was in that plastic supermarket bag they dutifully carried behind, I'm pretty sure it was the script for this movie."
The film grossed $1,500,000 on its opening day,[13] and about $4,000,000 for its opening weekend.[14] The film earned a total of $8,460,995 by the end of its third weekend, still short of the $10 million production cost.[1] In July 2010, Parade listed the film #2 on its list of "Biggest Box Office Flops of 2010 (So Far)."[15]
Theaters typically must exhibit a new release for two weeks before considering dropping it. MacGruber realized the fourth biggest third week drop in cinema history, shrinking 93% from 2,546 to 177 theaters.[16]
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