Running time: 98 mins. Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer, Powers Boothe, Maya Rudolph. Director: Jorma Taccone.

FOR almost 35 years, the late night American television show Saturday Night Live has been mercilessly lampooning Democrat and Republican politics and popular culture.

Apart from a reputation as a finely-tuned barometer of public taste, SNL has also been a fertile breeding ground for character comedians and their hilarious alter egos.

However, some of SNL’s characters haven’t translated well to widescreen.

MacGruber can be added to the list of failures.

Based on a character created by actor Will Forte, MacGruber is a comedy about a hapless former soldier who is dragged out of retirement to save the world from his arch nemesis.

On SNL, the eponymous action man has an uncanny knack of getting himself blown up.

Here, he accidentally detonates some homemade explosives, killing an elite team of hardened soldiers and has to go into battle flanked by untested recruits.

It’s a recipe for disaster and MacGruber serves up the misery in large, unappetizing portions.

MacGruber (Forte) has never recovered from the murder of his wife (Rudolph) at the hands of the dastardly villain, Dieter Von Cunth (Kilmer).

The former soldier of fortune seeks sanctuary in a South American monastery where Colonel James Faith (Boothe) and eager subordinate Lieutenant Dixon Piper (Phillippe) track him down.

They implore MacGruber to re-enter active service and thwart Von Cunth, who has stolen a nuclear warhead.

After some persuasion, MacGruber cobbles together a team including Piper and old friend Vicki St Elmo (Wiig).

The plucky threesome attempt to infiltrate Von Cunth’s top-secret operative and prevent Armageddon.

MacGruber is a poor parody of the TV series MacGyver.

Forte, who also co-wrote the screenplay, sets the uneven tone as the homophobic incompetent, whose only real talent seems to be ripping out the throats of nameless extras.

Phillippe is the straight man in the middle of the lunacy, one smirk away from corpsing, while Wiig comes closest to making us care about her hapless girl Friday.