Over the past several years it’s easy to say that Saturday Night Live hasn’t been stellar. There have been a few shining moments here and there, Laser Cats, any time Justin Timberlake hosts, and pretty much all of the digital shorts. One other big stand out has been the MacGruber skit.

MacGruber, to anyone that has seen it, is an obvious slant on the late 80′s early 90′s hit television show MaGyver. A show that had the title character taking everyday objects and solving complex puzzles and traps with ease. MacGruber co-opted this method for himself in the skits by “making life saving inventions out of household materials”. The hook is that MacGruber is CONSTANTLY being distracted by one thing or another and never actually seems to figure out how to diffuse the bomb before it explodes. The skit’s, usually only a couple minuets long, were shown over the course of an episode of SNL and MacGruber’s “distraction” usually became worse throughout.

As with most SNL movies, I can never really imagine how they can stretch a 5-10 minuet (tops) skit into a full length hour and a half movie. Luckily they never really have to deal with story or build up, or most of the trappings of usual movie making. The character is usually already established before the movie so that you are familiar with them and their surroundings. This lends itself well to MacGruber the movie, so that they can just jump right to the story with out any filler, save for one strange and hilarious team building spot.

Will Forte stars as the titular MacGruber and co-stars Ryan Phillippe, Kirsten Wiig, Val Kilmer and even Powers Boothe as MacGrubers old commanding officer. The story is almost as random as the cast. A nuclear warhead has been taking by Deiter Von Cunth (Kilmer) and he is planning on using it for evil. Col. Jim Faith (Boothe) is sent to find MacGruber with Lt. Dixon (Phillippe) in order to get him to hunt down Cunth and the warhead. Kirsten Wiig plays the third member of the team as MacGruber’s assistant Vickie St. Elmo and love interest after his fiance’ Casey (Mya Rudolph) is killed.

Really the story is just simply, stop the bad guy, and save the world. Naturally there are bumps along the way and several blunders on each side allowing the story to progress. No one goes to see these movies for the plot, nor do they go to see it for the acting. Which is good, because at best this is (I hope) intentionally on the scale of a bottom barrel B movie. However again, you don’t really care. It’s all about the jokes, pratt falls, and insane dialog that get butts in the seats for SNL flicks.

This is not a movie for the kids by any means. One thing is for sure, MacGruber has a potty mouth. On top of that the “Unrated” version of the movie has a pretty graphic sex scene, two actually. Everything in this movie is done over the top. One thing I really enjoyed was how they played up MacGruber’s personal history with the army in the beginning, and then seeing it unfold completely different by the end.

There were several one liners that were good, and Will Forte has a knack for playing the style of character that he portrays through MacGruber. Not really one that you would NEED to own on BluRay, or really any format. The “Deleted Scene” was just that; ONE SCENE. The gag reel was funny enough but there just weren’t enough special features to warrant a purchase based on extras. I haven’t watched it with the commentary on yet, and am hoping that it will not only add something to the humor but also to the story itself.

All said and done this is probably going to have to go into the books as just a rent. I purchased it because it was cheap. I would have spent well more than $20 to see it in the theater, and since I didn’t I can justify the purchase now. So check it out on your own. Just make sure that those watching it with you have your same sick, twisted sense of humor. Other wise, you may have to explain why a guy jumping around with a celery stalk sticking out of his ass is funny.