MacGruber – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

Outside of Wayne’s World, none of the other sketch characters from Saturday Night Live were any good. So hearing that they would be making yet another film based off of a character that lived within those eight live minutes of a skit, sounded as good as passing a stone, especially since the character was MacGruber. Yes, we laughed during the inspired bit, but after two years of the character, what’s left? Well, apparently he just left me an upper-decker for thinking that, because MacGruber is funny.

Take that, Ladies Man.

The character is a spoof of the oddly classic television series from the late ’80s, MacGyver, something they really had fun with on SNL. For the film though, those elements pretty much are subtle now, but it’s still a spoof nonetheless. But it doesn’t fish for a simple sight gag like most lame-duck spoofs now days. 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; a rare treat, really. Rude, crude, and retarded in our current sophomoric loving comedy movie ways, the film loses nothing from the skit, but successfully adds to it. If anything, that’s the key to why this film is funny, other than say, It’s Pat! There was actually room for them to play along with MacGruber for 88 minutes.

The story is straight out of an early 1990′s Cannon Films release. Terrorists grab a bid, bad bomb, and the United States is helpless, until they seek out a long thought dead Special Ops member, who rallies up a team to save the day. MacGruber fits nicely somewhere in between Braddock: Missing in Action III and A Man Called Sarge. But none of this would work, if it wasn’t for Will Forte’s brilliant blend of witless charm and dumb ass heroics. He’s been on the bubble to being a comedy name, and with his goofy smile, boyish looks, and swell diversity in characters, well, SNL isn’t that watchable without him (and won’t be now that he has left). MacGruber is his show and he shines.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Universal unloads a great HD presentation on this flipper disc, with the other side being the DVD (I hate these flippers, though). While the Blu-ray has great color, deep details, and you know all of that HD good stuff we’ve come to expect, especially from a studio like Universal, the DVD is really good too. So if you hate flippers, maybe buying the DVD version isn’t a bad option. The audio is booming. For a comedy, especially of a low budget, the DTS track just explodes. constant rear surround activity and deep bass should rattle your pictures off your walls.

Commentary: A funny, light weight affair with Forte, the screenwriter, and the director. It’s not a side-splitting track of comedy, but mixed with some film making stuff, there’s plenty of laughs. Good for fans.

The disc’s best extra is the Gag Reel, that runs 8 minutes and is pretty funny. A lame 44 second deleted scene and some BD-Live stuff round out the slim extras.

Conclusion: It’s not for everyone and you have to vibe with the satire mixed with the goofy ball comedy, but if you do, it’s a hilarious film that few have rivaled this year.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: