Heartbreak with the Love Guru

Posted: 22nd June 2008 by Luc "Sandman" G. in Movies

I’m taking a very small break from my Honeymoon Diaries to bring you this very special movie review.

After a 5 year absence from the big screen (Shrek voiceover work nonwithstanding), Mike Myers returns with a new character and movie, The Love Guru.

The story revolves around Guru Pitka AKA the Love Guru who is hired by the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs (Jane Bullard, played by the lovely Jessica Alba) to help their star player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) get back with his wife (Meagan Good). Ever since Roanoke separated from his wife, his play has gone down the toilet. This is exasperated by the fact that his wife is now sleeping with the LA King’s goaltender Jacques “Le Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake). Bullard, along with coach Punch Cherkov (Verne Troyer) believe that by getting Roanoke back with his wife will allow him to regain his talent and help the team win the Stanley Cup. Pitka’s goals is not only to get the couple together, but by doing so will secure himself a spot on the Oprah Winfrey show, allowing him to beat his rival, Guru Deepak Chopra.

My thoughts about this movie? It was OK at best. This is not one of Mike Myers’ greatest characters or movies. The laughs were few and far between. As with previous character based movies like Austin Powers, the jokes range from the very juvenile(which was often) to the cerebral (which was rare), but it seems that there was a lack of a connection with the audience. It also seems like the Love Guru contained just recycled and scrapped bits from the aforementioned Austin Powers movies. The only time I truly laughed was at Justin Timberlake’s character who was spot on as the french canadian goaltender. His mastery of the accent of a french Quebecois speaking english accent was dead on.  Stephen Colbert’s small role as a Hockey Night In Canada commentator was also quite good, even if it was a little over the top. For rest of the movie, most times it seems like Myers was trying too hard to get laughs but failed.

I love Mike Myers’ comedies and I tried hard to love this one, but I just couldn’t do it. Though it was funny at times, the jokes were not roll in aisles funny and the slightly funny ones were very spread out. I was disappointed with the Love Guru, about as disappointed as Leafs fans who will only see their team win the Stanley Cup in a fictional movie.

I give Love Guru 4 out of 10. 4stars

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