MacGruber (2010)

Directed by: Jorma Taccone 

Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe

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I didn't go into MacGruber with awfully high expectations. It is, after all, a film based off of a Saturday Night Live sketch, and therefore should be graded on a curve. Even with that taken into consideration, MacGruber manages only to be slightly better than terrible. 

Sorry, Pat... You're still in last place. But it was close. 

MacGruber, on its face, is a parody of 1980's TV action shows. Once you start watching, you'll notice the only things it draws from this source material is the main character's looks, and something to name the film. MacGruber (Forte) is an ex secret agent, skilled (so they say) in making weapons out of everyday objects. He is approached by the US government to stop a terrorist, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) who has stolen a nuclear weapon. MacGruber is reluctant to take the mission, until he hears that the terrorist behind the plot is the same man who killed his wife years earlier. 

The humor is low brow, and usually consists of copious use of the F-word, and various instances of bathroom humor. Not that I have a problem with bathroom humor or cursing, its just that this film uses them as a substitute for actual humor. I could have pitched this to a group of third graders, and they could have told me I was a dumb ass and come up with something substantially better themselves.  The film managed to make me chuckle only a couple of times. And when it does find a joke that doesn't fall flat on its face, it repeated it multiple times until you are sick of it. Even the jokes that don't work are repeated more than once. 

Guys, guys.. Get this. We'll do the celery up the butt bit, not once -pay attention now- but twice. 

Bottom Line: 3/10:  Most of the jokes aren't funny, the characters can be annoying, and the story is downright dull. Watching Macgruber was only slightly less painful than having a vegetable shoved in your rear.  

Predators (2010)

Directted by: Nimród Antal

Starring: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne

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I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Predators. After the disasters that were the two Alien VS Predator films, I didn't think there was much life left in the series. Luckily the creative team behind this film thought the same as I did about the AVP films, and decided to ignore that storyline altogether. They drew most, if not all, of their inspiration from the first film.  Predators is a fun, no-brainer action movie, that gives a slick 2010 feel to the 1987 classic.

We open on our main character, Royce (Brody), as he is in freefall.  His parachute opens and he lands less than gracefully in a jungle. There, he meets up with a few other people who have fallen in the same fashion he has. Most of them are all killers of some kind (save for one doctor): Special forces, mercenaries, mass murderers, and gang hit men. They soon realize that the're not on earth anymore, and that something is hunting them.

One of the best thing that Predators does well is the casting. Adrien Brody is perfect as the impromptu leader of the group trying to survive. Alice Braga does well in her role as the tough Israeli soldier, who reluctantly follows Royce in their attempt to get off the planet. 

However, there are a couple of cast members that don't totally fit in. Laurence Fishburne is Roland, a crazy soldier that has been trapped on the predator planet for years. His acting is great, I was just surprised at how small his part ended up being. It seems as though the character was tacked on just so they could get another big name actor in the credits. Eric Foreman Topher Grace also feels awkward as a seemingly harmless doctor. Its another role that doesn't seem like it has a lot of purpose to it. Intentional for the character or not, Topher just seems out of place in a gritty action film.

"I'll never be typecast all the way out here in the jungle."

Bottom Line: 8/10: Predators is one of those no-thought-required action films. It managed to hold my attention from beginning to end, while capturing the feel of the original 1987 film. Best of all, it pretended like the AVP films never happened. 

The Mystery Team (2009)

Directed by: Dan Eckman

Starring: Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes

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The Mystery Team is a raunchy film from the guys at Derrik Comedy. They have gained a pretty big following on YouTube, and their increased popularity has allowed them to make their first feature length film. The humor is low brow, some of the jokes fell flat, and the acting can be a bit shaky in some areas. However, that didn't stop me from laughing out loud on more than one occasion. 

Our three main characters, Jason (Glover), Duncan (Pierson) and Charlie (Dierkes), are a trio of high school seniors, who seem to be stuck in their elementary school years. They venture around the neighborhood, solving "mysteries" for much younger kids. They mostly stick to juvenile "crimes" to solve, but still wish to  move on to become big league detectives some day. Most of their peers and elders are frustrated with them, seeing them as a bunch of naive losers. (Which they are.) Soon, The Mystery team gets a chance to prove themselves. A little girl commissions them to find out who killed her parents. Right from the onset, the team is dragged into a world of hired killers, gentlemen's clubs, and drug dealers. 

"Hi, we'd like to buy some cocaine." 

Most of the humor is low brow, with a few clever puns tossed in here and there. I didn't have any problems with most of the jokes, but I can still appreciate fart jokes. A few of the gags do fall flat, but the film doesn't dwell on them. It moves past them so quick and hits you with a new joke that you soon forget the one that didn't work so great. There are a few points where the film can get pretty disgusting- involving vomit and a scene inside of a seedy strip club bathroom. 

The acting, for the most part, is pretty solid. Glover steals the show with this one, while Pierson is close behind. Dierkes struggles in some places, and its pretty obvious, but he still manages to supply a good amount of laughs. The film manages to look pretty good considering it's low budget. Granted, there aren't any major action sequences or big special effects. 

Bottom Line: 7/10: Those who appreciate sophisticated humor should look elsewhere. For those who like bathroom humor, The Mystery Team may be perfect for you. The jokes fly at you non stop, the story is interesting, and the characters are enjoyable. I hope to see more from these guys in the future, it would be cool to see what they could do with more resources available.