Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
MacGruber (2010)
Director: Jorma Taccone
Synopsis
A broad comedy about a secret agent facing off against his arch enemy, nuclear terrorist Dieter Von Cunth.
Movie review
From Time Out London
After ‘Hot Shots!’, ‘Austin Powers’ and ‘Team America’, is there still mileage in the slapstick action-movie pastiche? Based on a recurring ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch – itself ‘inspired’ by ’80s cheeseball spy show ‘MacGyver’ – ‘MacGruber’ sees SNL stalwart Will Forte’s titular secret agent rousted from a jungle retreat and pressed into CIA service in an effort to track down Val Kilmer’s nuclear-warhead-wielding terrorist, Dieter von Cunth. That name typifies the kind of humour on offer: amusing enough the first time, but increasingly unfunny on the thirty-third. There are a handful of quality gags – most of them at the expense of mullet-man MacGruber’s Clarksonesque fashion sense – and Forte surrounds himself with solid performers, notably Kilmer as the preening psychopath and Powers Boothe as a grouchy CIA bigwig.But it all feels terribly routine, and as the script attempts to paper over the gaps between good gags with graphic sex, extreme violence and pratfalls, it becomes clear that this particular well has run bone dry.
Author: Tom Huddleston
Time Out London Issue 2078: 17 - 23 June, 2010
Cast & crew
Director: Jorma Taccone
Cast: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Ryan Phillippe full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Comedy
Duration: 99 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now