At the Movies with Fatwayne

If you like the SNL skits from which this movie came you will probably enjoy this offering. It, of course, stars Will Forte as the incorrigible and goofy operative who hates guns and uses his bare hands and common items that are lying around to overcome his enemies. This idea emanated from the 1980s TV show MacGyver which it spoofs.

It starts out with “Mac” meditating and leading a peaceful life ten years after his fiancee Casey (Maya Rudolph) was killed on their wedding day by his ex-friend but now arch enemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer). He is approached by his old friend and superior officer Col. Jim Faith (Powers Booth). Col. Faith realizes that there is only one man in the world who can save the country from nuclear devastation since Cunth has stolen a warhead and plans to obliterate Washington D.C.

MacGruber is at first hesitant to give up his peaceful ways even after Col. Faith reminds him that he is the only man who has achieved the distinction of becoming a Green Beret, Navy Seal and Army Ranger who has been awarded 16 purple hearts, 3 Congressional Medals of Honor and 7 Presidential Medals for bravery! It is not until he is asleep and dreams of that fateful day that Dieter Von Cunth murdered his wife at the altar that he is moved to defend his country once again.

Mac goes about assembling his old team al a Yul Brenner in the ”Magnificent Seven” and once he has them all on board, he is ready to go. Unfortunately for them, he leaves them in his van along with some homemade explosives that he has concocted. As he is talking to Col. Faith the van blows up killing his entire team. Now he is forced to search for new members in order to go after Dieter. He winds up with Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) who was actually a member of his old team but had been reluctant to give up her singing career. He also recruits Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) after his initial dislike for him.

Please don’t be led to believe that this is your typical action/adventure movie because it definitely is not. It has goofiness and comedy written all over it. MacGruber along with his mullet haircut goes from fearless to whining to pathetic to inept in virtually every scene. He will do anything to achieve his goal of eliminating the evil Dieter Von Cunth. The problem is that he is “MacGruber” and nothing seems to work out right for him. He never has a plan and that is probably just as well since it would probably just be a waste of his time.

Was it a good spoof? For the most part I would say ‘yes’ it is. It is not “blow you away” funny but it does have its moments. There is a scene where MacGruber decides to distract the gunmen who are shooting at him and Lt. Piper. He does indeed distract them by walking out completely nude with a stalk of celery sticking out of his butt! Oh, my!

Quotes from MacGruber

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