The Love Guru Movie Review

MOVIE REVIEW: THE LOVE GURU

06/18/08

SYNOPSIS: In the comedy "The Love Guru," Pitka (Mike Myers in his first original character since Austin Powers) is an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus. He moves back to the U.S. to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) and his estranged wife. After the split, Roanoke's wife starts dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake) out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid - to the horror of the teams' owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) and Coach Cherkov (Verne Troyer). Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old "Bullard Curse" and win the Stanley Cup.

REVIEW: Being a huge Austin Powers fan I was hoping for something close to that caliber of comedy. From watching the previews you can tell that it’s the same type of comedy just that it has different characters and a different story so you’d think it would be as good, right? Wrong! This movie fell short of my expectations and Mike Myers regressed as a comedic powerhouse with this role. Some of the gags and even a musical number seemed to be thrown in there as filler. Some of the comedy seemed forced or obligated. Maybe it’s because those Austin Powers type jokes are starting to get old and stale, or maybe this story setting was just not believable at all, or maybe Mike Myers as this guru character was not believable, or maybe it was because I was feeling ill. Whatever it might be, I can tell you that I was not convinced by this film. It wasn’t a total loss however. I did laugh from time to time, but not enough to cry. It just doesn’t measure up to the Austin Powers series which is the obvious choice for comparison. Priscilla, on the other hand, did enjoy the movie and she thought it was okay. Well, we agreed to disagree. This comedy just didn’t do it for me.

Mike Myers is a talented actor who is trying to bring this new character to life to potentially start another Austin Powers like series, perhaps. He does give a good performance but it is shred by the corny script and the weak story. The flow of the film is bumpy and the comedy is abrupt and sometimes flat out stupid (and I normally enjoy stupid humor). The same goes for the rest of the cast who turn in decent performances but are cheapened by the script and the storyline. Jessica Alba plays a pretty face again as Jane Bullard, owner of the Maple Leafs and Guru Pitka’s love interest. Verne Troyer as Coach Cherkov has a lot more to say in this film and he has the right amount of attitude to do it. Justin Timberlake was quite surprising with his role as hockey star Jacques Grande. You would think that he would be filler too, but he actually does a decent job. The biggest surprise has to go to Ben Kingsley as the Guru Master. He oozes talent no matter what kind of role he’s playing. The characters in this movie were cleverly conceived but they just don’t match up with the kinds of characters we’re used to in the Austin Powers series. From this point, the only way is up for first time Director Marco Schnabel who has been involved in one way or another with all three Austin Powers movies and the Meet the Parents/Meet the Fockers series. So he has been around greatness, hopefully he can improve next time. As far as this one goes, I recommend waiting for the DVD.