Mike Myers makes his live-action return to film five years after the execrable ‘The Cat in the Hat’ with the much maligned ‘The Love Guru.’ The film was a commercial and critical disaster that had critics and audience’s alike running for the theater exits. Could it really be that bad?
That all depends on how heavy of a drinker you are – with copious amounts of liquor comes regression and with regression comes an ability to laugh at the most constant, god-awful juvenile humor to parade across the screen since ‘The Garbage Pail Kids Movie’.
Certainly, ‘Austin Powers’ and ‘Shrek’ and therefore Mike Myers is no stranger to penile and fart jokes but it seems Myers wanted to one-up himself with a three-pic strong franchise worth of poopie, fart, and genitalia jokes all crammed into the 86-minute ‘The Love Guru’.
Good thing, too, as a continuation of this character is as about as likely as a ‘Garbage Pail Kids’ sequel.
That being said and returning to my earlier point, I am a heavy drinker as well as my wife (don’t’ worry, we’re seeking help) and we giggled enough to not completely rue the day the Blu-Ray showed up on my doorstop.
Most of those laughs are due to the absolutely brazen way Myers pinballs from one shtick-piece to the next bouncing off a supporting cast blissfully unaware of how all unfunny this stuff is.
I can understand Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake, but what sins is Ben Kingsley atoning for? And riffing on Gandhi no less! Morgan Freeman also provides a few lines in a gag that kind of works…but still, have you no shame, Freeman?
Ironically, this Guru Pitka character had a long gestation period where Myers would show up in random comedy clubs to test the character out and fine-tune the comedy bits. He apparently did the same thing with ‘Austin Powers’ so what happened here?
It’s not that the character is inherently unfunny, so impromptu stage bits probably were funny (and going back to that drunken audience thing….), but like his ‘Wayne’ creation and most of the outlandish characters on SNL, I’m just not sure ‘Guru Pitka’ justifies a full-length pic, particularly one with such a flimsy yarn; speaking of which…
So Myers stars as the Guru Pitka, the ‘world’s second most popular neo-Eastern self-help specialist’ always in the formidable shadow of Deepak Chopra. Abandoned at an Indian ashram as a boy, the American was raised by Guru Tugginmypudah (Ben Kingsley) and became the self-proclaimed ‘Love Guru’, a best-selling author and maestro in the ways of love.
Seeing a guest spot on Oprah as the ultimate one-up on his long-time rival Chopra, this opportunity might present itself if he takes a job with the Toronto Maple Leafs whose star player is having some love squabbles.
Hired by the team’s owner (Jessica Alba), the team has just made it to the Stanley Cup when star player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) loses focus after his wife leaves him and shacks up with rival player Jacques “Le Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake). It’s Pitka’s job to reunite the couple in time to win the championship!
So yeah, including the aforementioned juvenile humor, we also get three separate sitar karaoke sessions including an almost entire reenactment of Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’ music video, a self-help seminar that goes on entirely too long and hinges completely on acronyms, Verne Troyer as the Leaf’s coach who centerpieces any unused little-people jokes from ‘Austin Powers’ and Justin Timberlake belting out Celine Dion in a faux-Quebec accent.
Was there anything that was genuinely funny? Well, that’s subjective, of course, as Jim Ferguson from KGUN 9 ABC said ‘The Love Guru’ is “one big laugh from beginning to end!” (the quote’s on the back of the Blu-Ray) but I was partial to the attack rooster and the ensuing fight where one participant meets a grisly end and the intermittent sports commentary from Stephen Colbert and Jim “Hot Pocket” Gaffigan.
Well if the film itself is no great shakes, at least it looks great – really, great. The 2.35:1 1080p transfer is exquisite. A gorgeous palette of bright colors is crisp and jaw-droppingly detailed and is demo-worthy for those still in doubt of the advances of high-def. A lossless Dolby TrueHD track is provided and gets the job done – those sitar jamming sessions really come alive!
All special features are presented in HD and include ‘Mike Myers and The Love Guru: An Inside Look’, your standard making-of where everybody backslaps and self-congratulates on a job well done. ‘One Helluva Elephant’ is a short look at how an elephant puppet was designed.
Um, cool. ‘Hockey Training for Actors’ is a quick look at getting the actors trained on the ice rink. Funny how much work goes into something that barely registers for the audience. Well, funny and sad.
‘Deleted and Extended Scenes’, ‘Bloopers’ and ‘Outtakes & More’ are all essentially more of the same – some schtick and riffing. Nothing stood out as particularly funny. ‘Back in the Booth with Trent & Jerry’ is five more minutes of improv with them and a trailer and bonus digital copy of the film on DVD round out the extras.
So, yeah, the film was another misstep for Mike Myers following ‘The Cat in the Hat’ but there’s always a fourth Shrek and Austin Powers film waiting in the wings and it looks like Myers will be trying out his dramatic thesping skills as he was cast in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming war epic ‘Inglorious Bastards’.
Yet, unlike a lot of the critics this past summer who seemed to get personal with their attacks a la questioning whether Mike Myers was ever really funny and does his humor have a place these days, etc., I still think Mike Myers can be really funny and despite this shameless ode for laughs.
I hope the reception to this pic doesn’t result in him shrinking away from creating original characters, as good or bad, there’s really no one in the business that does what he does. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but if I may borrow a line from ‘Jerry Maguire’, at least he ‘hangs his balls out there’ – although this time he did that both figuratively and literally.
The Love Guru (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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