Film

MacGruber

Name: MacGruber
Genre: Action, Comedy
Released: 2010
Cast: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Powers Boothe, Maya Rudolph

Action
Parody
Light-hearted
Relentless

MacGruber is a gloriously stupid action-comedy built on a single joke executed with absolute commitment. Will Forte plays a vain, incompetent ex-operative stumbling through espionage while destroying everything around him. It's profane, absurd, and aims for exactly zero emotional stakes. For people who love comedies that refuse to wink at the audience.

TMDb rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sketch-comedy absurdity played utterly straight by a cast committing to the bit, and don't mind a parody that runs on escalating, filthy one-liners.

Skip it if your patience for crude, deliberately clumsy jokes is thin, since much of it lands as gross-out bluntness rather than wit, and the plot is a scaffold for the gags.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes at a sprint, with a scattershot tone that swings between spoof and spectacle without warning; attention is light, but the silliness has to be taken on its terms.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Hot Fuzz2007

A buddy-cop action film that treats its genre with genuine reverence while being genuinely hilarious. Edgar Wright's direction makes the mayhem feel both real and ridiculous, and the chemistry between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is unbeatable.

But It's a longer film that requires patience for British humor and small-town British village politics to land. The action parody works better if you actually like action films.

Tropic Thunder2008

Robert Downey Jr. commits so fully to playing a method actor in blackface that it becomes genius satire. The film's chaotic action sequences and script-flip chaos mirror MacGruber's gleeful genre abuse with serious filmmaking chops behind it.

But The central joke about race and acting could feel dated or miscalculated depending on your tolerance. It's also much slicker and more technically accomplished than you might expect.

21 Jump Street2012

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum's chemistry drives a buddy-cop comedy that genuinely gets better as it embraces how dumb it's willing to be. By the final act, it's committed to pure comedic chaos without apology.

But The first half is surprisingly conventional. If you need smarts in your comedy, this will test your patience before it wins you over.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from MacGruber

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Reno 911!: Miami2007

Both films treat incompetent law enforcement as a structural premise rather than a character flaw. The comedy comes from watching professionals fail completely at their jobs.

An ensemble sketch-comedy cast playing incompetent cops at a Miami police convention during a terror threat. It has the same anarchic energy as MacGruber but spreads it across a larger cast and location, with genuine affection for its dumbest characters.

But It's built entirely on sketch-comedy logic and characters; if you never watched the TV show, it's just sketches strung together with no narrative coherence. The humor is very 2000s Comedy Central.

The Other Guys2010

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as mismatched detectives, with Ferrell playing a timid desk jockey who gradually becomes unhinged. The absurdist logic is impeccable and Wahlberg's dead-serious delivery makes it all land harder.

But It's very much a product of 2010s comedy sensibilities. Some scenes linger too long on a single joke, and the plot is genuinely negligible.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping2016

The Lonely Island's feature film is a complete commitment to absurdity about a vapid pop star. It escalates beautifully and respects comedy's structural demands while being completely unhinged.

But It's very music-industry specific. If you don't care about pop star culture or SNL-style sketch comedy, the references will feel thin.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping poster

The Nice Guys2016

Shane Black directs Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as incompetent detectives in 1970s LA. It's fundamentally a buddy-cop film with genuine heart underneath the mayhem, and the dialogue crackles.

But The plot genuinely matters here, which makes it less purely comedic than MacGruber. If you want pure stupidity, this has too much actual mystery going on.

Cop Out2010

Kevin Smith directing Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as a buddy-cop duo who are genuinely terrible at their jobs. It's messy and profane and leans hard into the characters' incompetence as the joke.

But Smith's directing is functional rather than inspired. The humor is very mid-2010s NYC-comedy specific and some of it has aged poorly.

Pineapple Express2008

Seth Rogen and James Franco as a stoner and his drug dealer caught in a crime thriller. It's got real action sequences and genuine chemistry, with comedy built on character rather than concept.

But The action-comedy balance leans heavier toward the action and drama than pure comedy. If you hate stoner humor or James Franco, you're out.

Get Hard2015

Will Ferrell as a rich guy about to go to prison, training with Kevin Hart's car wash owner. It's committed to being dumb about class and crime in ways that occasionally actually work.

But The racial dynamics are often uncomfortable without being intentional satire. The film's logic collapses regularly and it's more mean-spirited than fun.

Kung Fu Hustle2004

Both films build their comedy from treating ridiculous genre premises with complete seriousness and technical commitment. The joke is never that the action is fake or silly—it's that everything is executed with such conviction.

Stephen Chow directs and stars in a martial arts action-comedy where every scene escalates the absurdity. It commits fully to genre pastiche—kung fu, gangster film, slapstick—without ever winking. Visually inventive and genuinely thrilling.

But It's a Hong Kong action film, so it requires patience with a very different style of comedy editing and timing. The tonal shifts are violent and not everyone's sense of humor survives them.

Black Dynamite2009

Both films respect their source genre enough to parody it seriously. The humor comes from perfect execution of a ridiculous premise, not from the premise being mocked. MacGruber loves action films the way Black Dynamite loves blaxploitation.

Michael Jai White stars in a blaxploitation parody that loves the genre it's parodying. Every shot is composed like a real 1970s action film, the editing is meticulous, and the commitment to tone never falters. Genuinely stylish and genuinely funny.

But You have to actually care about blaxploitation cinema for the references to land. It's a very specific pastiche and if you don't know what it's aping, you're just watching a weird action film.