A case for 'MacGruber' being one of the great underrated comedies

Will Forte as MacGruber

MacGruber isn't the best Saturday Night Live-inspired film, that'd probably be Wayne's World. Nor is it the most iconic -- that title belongs to The Blues Brothers. But viewed now amid Will Forte's career resurgence as the star of The Last Man On Earth, I think it deserves reconsideration as an infectiously silly and truly hilarious movie.

Now, I must admit when I first saw if I was -- to put it gently -- in a state of mind where I was inclined to find a great many things funny.

So I've always assumed that my first impression may have been somewhat skewed. The film was a colossal bomb at the box office, and despite a few reviews that reveled in its incredible crudeness, most critics dismissed it as trash.

Of course, any film that derives its source material from a repetitive SNL sketch, and as especially thin one, was going to likely be shredded by most film critics. But Forte is a unique and underappreciated talent, who was unjustly overshadowed by the likes of Will Ferrell and Tracy Morgan during his SNL heyday.

He always brought a very strange, aggressively off-kilter edge to a number of the characters he played (think The Falconer or his bizarre political candidate Tim Calhoun). And in MacGruber he accesses his full arsenal of oddball humor, albeit for a spoof of '80s action films with ample potty humor.

Yes, this is the kind of movie that gets mileage out of naming it's villain Cunth (played hilariously by Val Kilmer). But it's also a movie with some truly inspired, extremely strange gags.

Val Kilmer and Will Forte in MacGruber

For instance, I love MacGruber's obsession with hunting down and getting revenge on a random motorist who insults him early on in the film. I appreciate how his character is essentially an unrepentant jerk who repeatedly puts his colleagues in harm's way. And late in the film there's a brilliantly nutty monologue where we learn that Kilmer's character may actually be totally justified in his jihad against MacGruber.

There are movies are would argue that are both dumb and about dumb people -- the inexplicable Paul Blart movies come to mind. But MacGruber is a different kind of beast. It's a clever movie about incredibly dimwitted people, which Forte is particularly adept at as is his priceless co-star, Kristen Wiig.

There is also a healthy dose of clever '80s homages here. Instead of the obvious fashion spoofs, we have knowing nods to the style sex scenes were shot and the importance of protecting your sports car's radio. Also, MacGruber doesn't like to just kill his enemies, he literally rips their throats out.

I think MacGruber was one of those movies that was meant to be discovered on DVD, where it's absurdity can be better appreciated and its jokes can be processed better after repeat viewings. The concept of the "SNL movie" is largely a bad one. Most repeated sketches grow tiresome on the show, so the idea of an entire film is deadly.

But in the case of MacGruber, Forte and company actually have fun and expand the material, and although the movie has a terrible reputation, I'll defend it to the death.