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Mike Myers spoofs the self-help industry with the creation of Guru Pitka, his first original character since Austin Powers. Orphaned at a young age, Maurice (Myers) studies with Guru Tugginmypuddha (Ben Kingsley) at an ashram in India where his classmate is a young Deepak Chopra. Pitka becomes a world-renowned guru in his own right, but despite his best efforts, he repeatedly comes in second to Chopra in the guru rankings. But his manager has a plan: the only difference between Pitka and Chopra is that the latter has appeared on THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW. Pitka's key to an Oprah show appearance is Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco), star player of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. Estranged from his wife, Prudence (Meagan Good), who has started dating French-Canadian Jacques "Le Coq" Grande (Justin Timberlake), Roanoke's game has suffered terribly, putting his team's bid for the playoffs and the Stanley Cup in jeopardy. If Pitka can reunite the estranged couple in time for Roanoke to help win the Stanley Cup, he'll get more than just a big paycheck; he'll finally be on Oprah.Myers created Guru Pitka after embarking on his own spiritual search following the death of his father. He counts Chopra, who appears briefly in the film, as a personal friend. Jessica Alba stars as the owner of the Maple Leafs, and Verne Troyer is their coach. Playing sportscasters, Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan share some of the film's funniest moments, while Timberlake holds his own on the comic front. Watch for brief appearances from Jessica Simpson, Val Kilmer, Mariska Hargitay (whose name Pitka co-opts as his greeting), Kanye West, and even Myers himself. Parents should be forewarned: THE LOVE GURU is filled with double entendres, sexual innuendo, plenty of midget jokes, and gross-out humor.
Poor Mike Myers. The guy has a talent for creating clueless catchy characters that all basically run on a fuel of catch-phrases, sight-gags, and pokes at then current points of pop-culture. And usually it works. Works well. From teenage Metal fans Wayne's World, to a stranger in a strange land Austin Powers, when it comes to original creations, Mike Myers really has done well for himself. But how far can you use the exact same template, just changing it's color each time before the format grows stale?
Six years seems about right.
Because it's been six years since the last Austin Powers film Goldmember, and now Myers is back with a brand new character Guru Pitka, a self-help spiritual advisor who's second only to real-life equivalent Deepak Chopra. When Pitka gets an offer to help the Tiger Woods of Hockey Darren Roanoke (the Chris Rock-lite Romany Malco) get out of his romantic funk after losing the love of his life, he himself finds the same in the team's owner, played curiously by Jessica Alba, who I figure she thought she was originally appearing in Austin Powers IV. Along the way, you get a variety of secondary cast members by the likes of Justin Timberlake (who steals the show as a Canadian well-endowed goalie who stole Roanoke's love), Stephen Colbert (doing his Report as if it was Sportscenter), Ben Kingsley (who has offically flushed his credibly down the toliet here as Pitka's crossed-eyed mentor), and "please give me a job" Verne Troyer.
But what is painfully obvious literally minutes into this film is that all it really is, is a reworking of those Austin Powers movies. Instead of big glasses & funky teeth, it's a beard and big nose. Instead of an exaggerated British accent, it's an over-the-top Indian one. He even stoops to a few musical parodies in this too, sound painfully familiar? And when Powers had tons of humorous innunendo borderline-risque sight-gags, Guru follows suit, but feeling extremely forced and stale this time around. There are tons of word-play style jokes here that just scream "Yeah, Baby!" that will have your eyes rolling back into your head faster than you can say Linda Blair. And 80% of them you will see coming. This was just too expected of Myers to do after patenting that style of humor he's known for from way back in his SNL days. Granted, about 3/4 into the film the character might grow on you a little more, but even with a second viewing you'll still think half these jokes would have worked better out of the mouth of say Dr. Evil.
The disc isn't too bad for extras with a documentary, outakes, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel (which looks like nobody on-set was really laughing all that hard to begin with), but this film won't sit next to Wayne's World or Austin Powers on your shelf without hiding behind it's fakey beard. Too much like a rehash of former greatness to be considered good on it's own, Mike Myers needs to find himself a writer that can present him in a whole new light without the crutch of body-part jokes and funny plastic faces to only carry him through.
(RedSabbath Rating:6.0/10)Read full review
I thought it was a fun movie. But then I liked Norbit, Big Momma's House and Nacho Libre....although I've never particularly been a big Mike Meyers fan. I think you have to have a weird sense of humor to appreciate this type of movie. I can see how some people might not be impressed.
I am mostly a horror movie buff, so a comedy has to be really 'out there' for me to really appreciate it, and this one certainly is. I'm also a big Mariska Hargitay fan, so liked that added touch!
So I recommend it if you have a weird sense of humor and like the other movies that I mentioned above. Oh, and to agree with another review, it's probably not the best movie to watch with younger children. Enjoy!
After all the bad press, box-office disaster-status, naysayers who said it didn't compare to the Austin Powers movie.... ehh, I figured they might be right for once. I mean, I didn't think I wanted to see the talented Mike Myers play a single character like that, an Indian-ish guru, for an entire movie.
Bottom line, it was fun & funny! Verne Troyer, Romany Malco, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake and Telma Hopkins! Whooo! Romany was great as the loveless soccer player, I didn't know the actor, and Telma Hopkins from "Dawn" (as in Tony Orlando &) was perfect as his over-bearing mother. Myers was great, the jokes were consistent and corny & punny.And I liked it, I'll watch it again! It'll go with other good sports movies like BASEketball, Dodgeball, Balls of Fury, Nacho Libre, & The Ringer!
I have seen some awful movies. Movies that just aren't that great, aren't interesting, lack that certain spark that a Great Movie always has. I knew, walking in to screen this movie this morning, that this would lack that certain spark. I knew this would not be a Great Movie, but I expected it to be at least somewhat funny -- it is, after all, a comedy. And as for expecting the rest of it to be stupid, well, it went above and beyond: it was absolutely ridiculous.
Generally, I'm indifferent to Mike Myers' humor. There have been some genuinely funny moments in past movies, but you won't find more than two or maybe even three in this one. The entire movie was basically sexual innuendo after innuendo after innuendo after humping elephants.
At one point, I wanted to bash my head against a wall. This supposed "comedy" was absolute torture to sit through.
But Stephen Colbert is interesting -- has a few funny lines -- and Jessica Alba was very pretty. Also, Verne Troyer has quite the clever line -- in the credits, that is.
I suppose one thing to say about this movie is, while not exactly in a positive light, it will likely always be in your memory, never forgotten. Although, keep in mind: seeing a movie should never hurt this much.Read full review
I'm a huge Mike Myers fan and so I had high hopes but I was left very disappointed. First of all, I'm sick of Verne Troyer. Second, I could have done without Jessica Alba as well. That aside, I thought the jokes were unnecessarily dirty and redundant.
It's too bad because I think the character is a good one and I know Mike Myers can do much better. It won't stop me from seeing his films to come but let's just hope this was a fluke.