Studio: Paramount Pictures Genre: Comedy Street Date: September 16, 2008 Director: Marco Schnabel Number of Discs: 2 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Cast: • Mike Myers
• Justin Timberlake
• Verne Troyer
• Jessica Alba
• Ben Kingsley
• Romany Malco Running Time: 86 minutes Format: DVD Specs: Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Color
Audio: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French Special Features: Disc One:
• Commentary: Mike Myers and The Love Guru
• Featurette: One Hellava Elephant
• Featurette: Hockey Training for Actors
• Additional Scenes: Jane's Office / Grande Interview #1
• Additional Scenes: Cherkov on Ice
• Additional Scenes: Darren's Performance Anxiety
• Additional Scenes: Stink Mop
• Additional Scenes: Happy Pack
• Additional Scenes: More Fun at the Old Log Inn
• Additional Scenes: Grande Interview #2
• Additional Scenes: Bill Ford with Very Special Guests
• Additional Scenes: Nuts
• Additional Scenes: Cabbie Fight
• Additional Scenes: Alternate Ending
• Bloopers: Bloopers
• Featurette: Back In The Booth With Trent and Jay
• Featurette: Outtakes & More
• Trailers: Theatrical Trailer
Disc Two: Includes Digital Copy Of The Love Guru Version: Standard Review: This is a tough one; for me Mike Myers has always been a damn funny guy and his style of humor and wit always worked perfectly for what he was doing. Oh sure there have been a few misfires and odd cameos but I tend to let those slide and not hold them against him…I can’t even blame him for Cat in The Hat….I’m sure he had much love for it and wanted to make it his own and have some fun…well that or a dump truck full of cash (either way I’m fine with ignoring it).
That said you can understand my love of Mike and where this is going…because it’s not going to be pretty.
Over his career Mike has created some of the most memorable characters in pop culture, you cannot deny the fun of Stuart Mackenzie (So I Married An Axe Murderer), Wayne Campbell, Austin Powers, Dr Evil, hell you can even find some joy in his cameo character John Witney (View from the Top). Now I while admit that the Scottish shtick was getting pretty played out, but even so he could still bring some funny to it.
A few years back, Mike proved he could spot a sour idea and went to the mat to keep a bad Sprockets movie from going forward. It would have been a great payday for the guy and most would have just taken the movie knowing it was going to suck. Face it most of you reading this would have just grabbed the cash and unleashed whatever cinematic abomination it spawned laughing all the way to the nearest bank. Mike really earned some cred with that move among fans as not just another comic on screen but an artist. Knowing that makes it just so much more difficult to understand the Love Guru and how it went so wrong.
I can only imagine on paper The Love Guru was like a golden ticket to the people putting up the money for it, Mike had brought Austin Powers out of nowhere to kick serious ass three times and since then he’d been in hiding behind Cat makeup and CGI. Any new character coming from him could very well be the next Austin Powers filled with pop culture reference, spawning not just good cash flow at the box office but merchandise as well. One can only imagine as they made this thing words like “franchise” were bandied about on the regular…that is until they saw the fist rough cut. After that it was only prayers that this thing would somehow fly.
On top of all of this mess Mike got slammed pretty hard from the Hindu community before it’s release, and while I watched it I began to wonder; were they pissed off because the movie pokes fun at their culture or because it uses it as a vehicle for such an unfunny film? After the movie tanked even the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism seemed to feel Mike’s pain and offered that “If Mike Myers offers a genuine public apology, Hindus would not only absolve him but might also pray for his success in future movies”. That has to sting a bit.
Now as for the film itself, it’s a beast of many great yet flawed ideas. The flaw being that if this was 1992 these would still be good ideas. Nearly every single joke from the opening credits to the end are tired old jokes we’ve not only seen before but we’ve seen them from Myers himself more than a few times. So much so that it makes me worried to go back and watch some of his earlier stuff that I love for fear this will taint the entire crop. On the plus side there’s so much recycling done in this movie that Al Gore is thinking about nominating Mike for an award.
As if jokes weren’t tired enough this movie is literally filled with characters that are either annoyingly unfunny, or just so uninteresting you’ll start to wonder what’s on the Hallmark channel. Seriously! How in the hell do you make Jessica Alba seem so shallow and dull as to where she’s no longer hot?! 63 minutes in I had to do a penis check just to make sure I was psychically ok, honestly Jessica could spend 90 minutes of celluloid abusing old people with a sock full of nickels and I’d still walk out with the notion: “Yup I’d tap that”. Had she been on my list of five this would have caused me to re-evaluate things.
If this movie has any saving grace it’s Justin Timberlake, not that his character was so awesome or anything it was just the funniest thing going on. Not to lessen his efforts at all but it’s like picking out the least ugly stripper at Fuglies BBQ and Pole Tavern.
I won’t even get into just how god awful lame the plot is, if you’ve seen the trailer you’ve got the full plot, there are no surprises…which is good because I’m sure people would have wanted jokes to go with it…and that ain’t what they are serving here.
Now I can certainly understand if Mike wants to be the next Peter Sellers, what comic actor wouldn’t? And I can completely confess that had this movie come from someone else I would have just dismissed it as lame and moved on. But I really want Mike Myers to succeed; I want to see what he’s got waiting for us. I’m even down with Wayne’s World 3, or a Dr Evil movie. Watching the Love Guru just scares me because what if this is all he’s got left? Maybe he blew a funny fuse or something? Let’s hope for a speedy recovery.
Please Mike you are better than this, make us proud buddy and we’ll just flush this turd and forget it ever happened. Buy It Now: Rating:
