"Call 911! Call 911!"This is Airplane! without the laughs, Garth Marenghis's Darkplace without the wit and understanding; MacGruber the movie is a genuine test of the audience's patience. This is another Saturday Night Live sketch stretched far too thinly for a full-length feature, as its poor US opening demonstrated. The premise (and the reasonably promising trailer) suggested it had something to offer, sending up the 80s teatime-staple TV show MacGyver, but like MacGruber's improvised tennis-ball-grenade in the film, it falls completely flat and is ineffective throughout. Val Kilmer turns in a non-performance as villain Dieter Von Cunth, and in contrast Will Forte gives a desperate and unappealing performance as MacGruber, using Will Ferrell-style over-emoting and grimacing as a substitute for real comedy and timing. Kristen Wiig has the character with perhaps most comedic potential, the dizzy blonde mistress of hopeless disguise Vicki St. Elmo, and she battles valiantly with a lightweight script and little opportunity to develop the role with limited success. Surprisingly, the film's strongest and most effective performances come from Powers Boothe and Ryan Phillippe as the 'straight men', which says it all about this empty and ultimately very weak comedy,which does not quite plumb the depths of Meet The Spartans, but comes perilously close.
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