Of all the SNL skits making the rounds weekly, MacGruber would have been at the last of my list of guesses as to which one could, or should be turned into a major motion picture. The skits themselves are awkward and rarely funny, with the exception of Kristen Wigg, who does the best with what she’s given. It’s fortunate indeed that last week’s SNL (which was basically a long commercial for the film) had Betty White keeping the skit afloat. With all this, I’m pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised at this over-the-top comedy.  They did a fine job adapting this to a full-length narrative.  And I really wanted to hate this movie.

There’s definitely some bad writing. And some jokes that make you laugh but immediately make you ashamed you’re doing it. Example, Val Kilmer plays the villian (quiet well I might add) named Dieter Von Cunth which inevitably leads to “I’m gonna go pound some Cunth,” and several other varieties. Regardless, it’s funny. The über-cheesy one-liners really are so bad they’re funny, and besides them, there are some truly, genuinely funny moments.  Will Forte stars as the title character. A man with a mullet, who boasts of the 20-pound python in his pants, and brags about his ability to rip out a man’s throat with his bare hands. He’s accompanied by a military team in charge of finding, and neutralizing a nuclear warhead set to detonate during the State of the Union. Kristen Wiig plays his love interest and teammate as Vicki St. Elmo. And then of course there’s the one guy not stuck in the eighties, Lt. Dixon Piper, played by Ryan Philippe. Strange enough, Wiig didn’t steal the show. She’s funny here of course, but her part was toned down to allow most of the attention on MacGruber. This leaves Philippe to play the straight man to all these shannigans, which are, of course, considerable.

Jorma Taccone, a writer and director for Saturday Night Live (sometimes appearing in digital shorts like Jizz in My Pants), directed and co-wrote MacGruber (he shares the writing credit with Forte and John Solomon), and show considerable promise. He may have a very bright future churning out crass summer comedies. This film is not The Hangover funny, but I promise you’ll laugh out loud more than you have in a while, and you’ll actually be excited about what SNL will give us next.

3 out of 4 stars

It’s been a long time since a movie has left me as speechless as after I watched Werner Herzog’s latest mess of a film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans.  Leaving the theatre, I really, honestly, didn’t have a thing to say about it.  I’m not sure that’s changed.

Nic Cage plays a mildly crooked cop who goes from bad to worse when his back is permanently injured while doing a good a deed.  The injury leads to an addiction to pain killers, which leads to coke, accidentally snorting heroin, falling deeper into a co-dependant relationship with his hooker girlfriend and fellow drug user Frankie (Eva Mendes), and engaging in more and more illegal acts.  These include robbing Frankie’s clients, selling police information to drug dealers, robbing and raping young adults when he believes they have drugs he can take from them in the name of the law.  And he frequently hallucinates aggressive iguanas.

Herzog’s furiously paced film is fantastically uneven and frenetic.  Which actually is perfectly paired with one crazy ass performance by Cage.  This is the good crazy Cage like in Wild at Heart, not ridiculous Cage like Knowing, Ghost Rider, The Wicker Man, Next, Bangkok Dangerous, etc., etc.  Truly, his performance here is fantastic.  Halfway through the film his rampant drug usage mostly paralyzes half his body and forces him to talk like James Stewart.  Here, this is somewhat distracting, but for the most part, it’s a great performance.  There are solid performances by most of his co-stars as well, including Mendes, Val Kilmer, and a fantastic Jennifer Coolidge.

If there was a point that Mr. Herzog intended for me to take away from his film, it has mostly eluded my grasp.  The film is wildly unpredictable, which is refreshing in a genre that is becoming overly familiar.  The ending is so unbelievable, it would be laughable if it had been handled in any other way.  Basically, Bad Lieutenant is just a hell of a ride.  Herzog keeps that distinct sense of detachment that is evident in his documentaries.  This detachment is passed on to the viewer which allows us to keep pesky emotions at bay.  In any other film, that would be seen as a handicap, but here, it works like synergy, taking the sum of all the films parts and supercharging them to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.

3 out of 4 stars