SNL + Lonely Island = One Demented 'MacGruber'

'MacGruber'

Review: 3.5/5

Who knew MacGruber was so wildly unpredictable? His idealistically humane methods during combat, while conceptually praiseworthy, never seem to manifest in a diplomatic manner. Instead, enemy-goons are shot, run-over, and de-throated. In the meantime, Grubes expresses his passion for male genitalia, has nauseating interactions with make-believe ghosts, and displays a disturbingly odd obsession with road rage. Each of these traits subvert his supposed humanity, most times in amusingly bizarre and off-putting ways (you'll never look at a celery stick the same way again).

Recognizing wholeheartedly that the 'SNL' branded film could be doomed to scathing reviews and poor box-office numbers, director Jorma Taccone wisely chooses to abandon all logic in favor of letting the seemingly manic 'MacGruber' sprint madly from scene-to-scene, spouting off absurd platitudes doused in misplaced adrenaline. Interestingly enough, (and not timely whatsoever) Taccone makes the decision to satirize 80s B-Movie action flicks, utilizing Grubes as the air-headed captain of all things nonsensical.

As an homage to the 'Dumb Bad Guy with a Silly Accent' cliche', Val Kilmer delivers, ponytail and ominous one-liners intact. SNL teammate Kristen Wiig wears a placid look of worry and confusion throughout the 90-minute running time, occasionally pausing to sing (!?), and Ryan Phillipe plays the straight man believably enough, but the stage belongs to Will Forte's 'MacGruber' and his demented machismo.

World Peace Secured? Summer has Arrived.

'Iron Man 2'

Review: 4/5

Although it may appear to be a cheap, candy-coated excuse for ludicrous action sequences (many of them either overly long, or unusually short), director Jon Favreau's 'Iron Man 2' bypasses the narrative purgatory many movie sequels unfortunately find themselves stuck in. Picking up exactly where the original left off, the indelibly narcissistic playboy Tony Stark gloats endlessly (and hilariously) through the film's first act, ranting and defending his newfound legacy as a worldwide savior and sole securer of world peace. The problem? He owns the 'Iron Man' technology, and is unwilling to relinquish it to the hands of the American government (take a few shots of Patron, a sip of champagne, and cue a rich bad guy, a vengeful Russian physicist, Stark's rising blood toxicity, and the cryptic S.H.I.E.L.D. clique, and you've got yourself an exciting, psychologically complex story). Oh, and Samuel L. Jackson wears an eye-patch.

Battling both praise and accusations with vanity and egotism, Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Tony Stark' is, this time, more of an unrelenting nuisance than he was in the original (this is a good thing). Yet this veneer is used not merely for spectators' entertainment, but to mask the hero's emotional and ethical crises, which writer Justin Theroux details with equally distributed doses of compassion and crippling honesty. Stark, who can spout sarcastic one-liners with ease, is far too afraid to confront an ominous childhood and a possible quasi-philanthropic future.

Without giving away the film's major plot developments, suffice it to say newly reinvented actor Mickey Rourke (a Russian physicist and man of few words in this film) won't be leaving the silver screen for a good while. Sam Rockwell is awesome, as, well, Sam Rockwell. Leave the rest to Downey's 'Stark,' and Favreau's favoring story over style.

Despite the film's 'sequel' status, 'Iron Man 2' appears to emphasize all the trappings of a new-age 'hero' saga.