"The creativity and surprisingly enjoyable performances make one forget the few slightly awkward less funny scenes and walk away smiling"

There aren't many people that could take a well known American skit and turn it into a feature length film. Well here enters Will Forte who created MacGruber for Saturday Night Live as a spoof of the 80's TV hit MacGyver, you will be forgiven for not knowing about MacGruber as it doesn't appear on British television, but having said that, you don't need to know the character to enjoy the film.

The film starts off with an introduction to Deiter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) who along with his band of mercenaries steal a nuclear warhead from the Russians. Colonel Faith (Powers Boothe) goes to an Asian monastery to reactivate MacGruber (Will Forte) in a scene that seems to be a throwback to other hit spoofs like Hots Shots Part Deux. Reluctantly, MacGruber returns to active duty and sets about to recruit a rag tag team of his own in order to take down personal nemesis Dieter Von Cunth, an unforeseen tragedy means he is unable to go on the mission, but after Lieutenant Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) join forces with him he's once again able to go on the mission.

Sure it's silly, it's crazy, but it's funny and entertaining throughout. Layered with rude jokes, the highly decorated MacGruber sets out to do everything wrong to stop the bad guy. Like the character he's spoofed from, he uses his ingenuity to forge weapons out of everyday items, rather than guns. The principal cast are amusing to watch, Will Forte sporting an 80's style mullet is witty and childish while Ryan Phillippe is the polar opposite as the smooth straight arrow Dixon Piper and Kristen Wiig plays Vicki St. Elmo, the ditzy, virginal songstress who harbours a deep longing for MacGruber and sings dialog at any given time.

Val Kilmer is the films villain Dieter Von Cunth with not a lot to do and although his name is funny to begin with, the repetition of the joke goes stale rather quickly. One thing I didn't understand was a repeating theme of a license plate of a car that MacGruber is obsessed with, and the resolution to which, however amusing is over the top and seemingly unnecessary. The creativity and surprisingly enjoyable performances make one forget the few slightly awkward less funny scenes and walk away smiling.