Recently I watched a movie called MacGruber. This movie is based on a skit that is a part of the Saturday Night Live TV show. I thought the movie was very funny, and the actors did a perfect job of portraying their characters. The one area that MacGruber disappointed me was the way the movie was gratuitously filled with obscenities and sexual gestures that were completely unnecessary.
MacGruber made it clear from the beginning that the movie was probably going to be like this. Within five minutes, the movie has a theme song saying “They made an f-ing movie.” But in the movie they don’t edit the “f” word the way I just did. It may be funny to some people to hear this, but it would have sent the exact same message and been just as funny if the song would have said “They made a ‘freakin’’ movie.”
There are also a countless number of scenes in MacGruber that make gratuitously obscene sexual references. These parts of the movie are actually the least funny parts of the movie. When I saw this movie, most people were in awe that the movie would include such a thing. People were focused on saying things like “gross” and “what the” more than they were focused on laughing.
From a broader point of view, something has me concerned. When MacGruber eventually ends up on TV channels, it will be edited so that it is essentially a PG movie. The sexual scenes will be completely removed, and all of the obscene swear words will be gone, too. Kids and parents will absolutely love MacGruber when they see an edited version. MacGruber is a very funny movie with no disappointments when presented in that manner! This is the way the movie should have been presented to the audience all along. Parents will gladly decide to purchase this movie on DVD for their kids, because they believe it is a great movie.
When those parents put the DVD into the player for their kids, they are in for a BIG surprise! All of those swear words and sexual scenes that didn’t appear on TV are going to be there in the DVD. This is a real disappointment because those scenes actually make the movie less funny. The director and producer did a poor job by allowing those scenes to be a part of MacGruber.
I know this is going to happen because when I was a kid there was a movie called National Lampoon’s Vacation. My family first saw this movie on TV and we thought it was hilarious – a great movie to watch with your family. But when we purchased the movie on VHS cassette, we essentially saw a completely different film. All sorts of sexual scenes and swear words appeared in the VHS cassette that were not a part of the movie that had been edited when it was broadcast on TV.
Our solution in the 80’s was to simply buy a blank VHS cassette and record the edited version of National Lampoon’s Vacation the next time it was broadcast on TV. But people today won’t be able to do that so easily. Only a small percentage of the market owns a DVD Recorder. And there is no such thing as a Blu-ray recorder currently available. (Blu-ray is a format with a short life expectancy, in my opinion; that’s why I don’t waste money on it).
I really believe directors and producers need to think with a broader scope when developing a movie like MacGruber. The movie easily could have been rated PG-13 instead of rated R. This would have opened the movie up to a larger audience and it would have seen more revenue at the box office. The same logic can be applied to the DVD discs available for sale.
Personally, I wish DVD movies would give us the option of selecting whether we want to watch the movie in its original format or in some form of edited “family” format. This would make it so everyone could be happy. I’m actually hoping for a sequel to MacGruber. I think there’s a pretty good chance a sequel will be made, since the storyline allows it and because MacGruber earned a profit. Let’s just hope the next movie doesn’t rely include unnecessary obscenities that actually make the movie less fun to watch.
