In honor of “MacGruber,” which hits theatres nationwide today, we look at the best and worst movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches ? from “The Blues Brothers” (quite successful) to “It’s Pat” (called “shockingly unfunny”) and ask: What makes for a good SNL movie? The story? The characters? The acting?

Mary Elizabeth Williams, writer for Salon.com, helps us mull it over, and confesses that she likes a lot of movies based on SNL characters, despite the fact that the movies usually get dismissed by both critics and the public.