MacGruber

Let’s get one thing straight: not everyone will like this film. It is ridiculous, immature and totally unsophisticated – much like its main character – and will probably offend a lot of people. But if the name ‘Cunth’ makes you snigger, MacGruber might just be for you.

MacGruber (Will Forte) – think Ron Burgundy, but with a fondness for ripping people’s throats out – is called back to action when his archenemy Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) steals a nuclear warhead, intending to reduce Washington D.C to rubble. He assembles a team and sets out to save America – and avenge the death of his wife.

A cross between a so-bad-it’s-good 80s action movie and a Hot Shots-style spoof, this Saturday Night Live spin-off is full of hilarious sight gags (if the scene where MacGruber creates a distraction by putting a piece of celery up his bum doesn’t crack you up, then you most likely have something up your own behind) and ridiculous dialogue (“He’s untouchable!”/“Oh I’ll touch him. I’ll touch him wherever I want”). As a result, it is both completely ludicrous and very, very funny. The plot is right out of a Steven Seagal movie, but the fun comes from MacGruber’s vast overestimation of his own abilities, and the subsequent chaos when his plans go awry. That these plans include loading his entire team into a van packed with explosives, announcing his presence to a room full of baddies and using his colleague as a human shield suggests how often this is the case. The acting is suitably camp (even bigger names such as Val Kilmer and Powers Boothe gamely send themselves up) and everyone is having so much fun that you will find it hard not to join in.

People will either love it or hate it, but if you enjoyed the likes of Anchorman, Zoolander and Hot Rod, chances are you will be laughing from start to finish.

CMD