Kristen Wiig arrives at the SXSW premiere of MacGruber

For the first time since the festival began on Friday, it seems like the Kick-Ass buzz has ebbed, and is being replaced with discussion of MacGruber, which premiered last night.

The primary cast (Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillipe, Val Kilmer) and creative team (Jorme Taccone, Akiva Schaffer and John Solomon) and producer (Seth Meyers) were all in attendance at the Paramount Theater for the screening, and Taccone briefly introduced the movie, letting the audience know that the film is not quite locked yet, so some sound levels might be off and some scenes not definitely in for the final release.

For the uninitiated, here’s the story: MacGruber is based upon a “Saturday Night Live” skit starring Will Forte as an action hero of sorts, a guy who repeatedly saves (or tries to save) the world using strange items found sitting around, and invariably mucks things up without realizing it. In the film, MacGruber, who has been in seclusion for six years following the murder of his wife, is urged by the military to come out of hiding and help them recover a Russian nuclear warhead stolen by MacGruber’s arch-enemy Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) – the man who killed MacGruber’s wife. MacGruber reluctantly agrees and assembles a team of former military muscle to defeat Cunth and find the warhead — and then accidentally kills them. So, he forms another team consisting of Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), a former teammate and mistress of disguises turned adult contemporary singer, and Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillipe), their official military liaison, to defeat his dastardly nemesis.

MacGruber is a film that seems perfectly designed for SXSW audiences: it’s created by a much-loved viral video team (Taccone and Schaffer are Lonely Island founders along with Andy Samberg), it looks big but is created on a small budget (relatively speaking, of course – Taccone revealed this morning that the film’s budget was $10 million), and combines comedy and action with the creative skills of a close-knit, constantly working ensemble.

That combination certainly did the trick here; the audience was incredibly vocal and involved through the entire film, cheering the first appearance of each main character, and I honestly don’t think I heard the theater devoid of laughter at any point in the screening. I’m not saying that everyone was laughing constantly; rather, the comedy and the casting were working together on a lot of different levels, providing something for everyone — and that’s what could make this film a box office contender. The couple sitting next to me couldn’t get enough of Kristen Wiig’s singing and disguises. The girls sitting in front of me were giggling breathlessly every time Ryan Phillipe appeared on screen. Personally, a few smaller visual gags were what got me: MacGruber passing a note, the care he takes with his car stereo, and yes, the gloriously goofy abandon Forte displays in the celery scene. (No, I won’t explain that last bit, and don’t do a search – wait until the movie comes out to see what I mean. Seriously. You deserve the chance to first cringe, and then laugh as hard as we did last night.)

I will admit, I came into the movie more than a bit concerned. SNL-based movies have been a hit-or-miss proposition for awhile, and though the cast involved are talented, committed and hard-working, we know that those qualities aren’t always enough to make a movie that can stand on its own. And, while the Lonely Island viral clips are some of the funniest bits of SNL in a long time, it’s hard to know whether short form success can be translated to feature length — it’s something that writers and directors struggle with every day. Taccone noted in an interview yesterday that he had the same concern, and that the initial draft weighed in at a hefty 179 pages before they could pare down and tie everything together. They continually worked on the script while filming, spending the time not on set filming writing and rewriting pieces of the story. While you can see the seams of patched-together segments a few times, they’re certainly not distracting enough to derail enjoyment of the film. It’s apparent that those seams are known and left there purposely, as an homage to all their favorite 1980s films.

There’s a lovely, nostalgia -inspiring Leslie Nielsen-esque quality to Will Forte’s performance here; while the filmmakers have repeatedly mentioned they were included by Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Rambo, Forte’s on-screen performances quietly pay tribute to films like Airplane! and Naked Gun, sharing Nielsen’s ability to convey oblivious self-conviction in way that’s both funny and totally believable – there’s no side winks at the camera, just Forte completely losing himself in portraying this loveable jackass of a character.

In the end, MacGruber is a spot-on nod to the action films and action film spoofs of yesteryear, full of elements to keep the creators’ online and TV fans please. That said, it somehow transcends the formulaic feel of those films. The only premise or throughline I could see is a simple one: the team on this movie wrote and performed things that make them laugh.