Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) has taken a Russian nuclear warhead and MacGruber (Will Forte) is the only one that can stop him from raining destruction on the world.  MacGruber quickly assembles a team of agents, which include Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), to go and ‘pound some Cunth’.

I’ve always been sceptical of SNL sketches, or any kind of sketch jokes, being adapted into a feature length film.  Most of the time it feels like the idea has been stretched too thin.  When you’re making jabs at pop culture it’s funny for the first few jabs and then it feels like you’re beating a dead horse with a really badly made stick.  So I guess the first question anyone will ask is if this film fits under the above description?  Not at all; it has enough moments that you can’t help but find yourself laughing and when the film is over and you look back, you realise that those moments add up to about 70% of the film.

The idea of watching a film which does nothing but make fun of one of my favourite 80s television shows from when I was a child seems like a trainwreck already.  I’m not sure whether I’m idolizing the original MacGyver television show at this point and refusing to see what Will Forte and his other SNL writers see when they’re making fun of it.  I found myself watching this movie and constantly saying ‘MacGyver didn’t do that!’ and stuff like that being annoyed by the cheap shots that the movie took at the brilliant nerd that was MacGyver.

With all that said above, I still think that the cast alone is worth a watch.  Will Forte and Kristen Wiig are two of the most talented SNL cast members and it shows here.  Wiig’s quiet standing awkward acting makes her character constantly a joy and Forte’s ridiculously over the top confidence in everything he’s doing – which includes sticking a piece of celery in his ass – makes him a perfect character.  When I was over I think that I would’ve loved this movie more if it was just a general 80s spoof film as opposed to pointing its guns directly on the MacGyver series.

I think the highlight of the film has to be Val Kilmer.  He’s reinvented himself in recent years as this ridiculous comedic actor.  With films like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans in his filmography you know what to expect from him.  He seems to be able to deliver those long time clichéd bad guy lines in a way that always seems special.  I particularly love the moment when he asks the missile if it’s ever been to DC.  It’s brilliant comedy.  I also love the final scene of the film the most, which I won’t give away, but genius is all I have to say.

So the film is definitely a good comedy but at times I felt like it needed to not be so hard on the man that is MacGyver.  It’s not my favourite SNL feature length film – Blues Brothers you have my heart – but it definitely is worth mentioning in the handful of good ones out there.

IMDB says 5.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 48%

I say 7.0/10