'Guru' Comedy Proves To Be Unenlightening
Mike Myers Gains a Goofy Accent But Loses His Comic Chops
Mike Myers is Guru Pitka, a Hindu self-help instructor whose aid is sought by the desperate Toronto Maple Leafs team owner (Jessica Alba). His mission is to help a star hockey player (Romany Malco) get back on his feet after being dumped by his wife and living his life in shambles on and off the ice. And that's it on plot for 'The Love Guru,' Myers' lame, smug comeback vehicle that will put fans of Austin Powers and Wayne Campbell to shame.
Give Us Austin Or Wayne, but Myers Should've Written Off Guru Pitka
Star/co-writer/producer Mike Myers is the movie's worst offender, as his forgettable, one-note character of Pitka is Austin Powers or Wayne Campbell with a lispy, singsong accent. It's never as funny as Myers had probably hoped. In an early flashback scene, Myers apes Martin Short from another comic train wreck, Clifford (1994), with his head creepily and digitally added onto a smaller body (hardy har har).
Bollywood opening and musical numbers of '9 to 5' and 'The Joker,' respectively, are upbeat and sort of fun, but everything else falls flat as a saucer. That goes for the jokes where Pitka has a book for every problem and an acronym, a humping-elephant sight gag, and a surprise cameo of . . . Myers himself? The verbal jokes are too obvious and eye-rolling to register genuine comedy, including the film's own tagline, "His karma is huge."
Cast and Director Seem Caught In Amateur Hour
As for the supporting cast, Jessica Alba is more relaxed on screen here than she's ever been, and Justin Timberlake gets a few laughs as a well-endowed hockey player, Jacques "Le Coq" Grande (get it?). But Verne Troyer, who played Mini Me in the Austin Powers movies, is the butt of most midget jokes, most of which are not at all funny. And seeing Ben "Ghandi" Kingsley seriously slumming it as the cross-eyed Guru Tugginmypudha is as funny as it sounds, which isn't saying much at all. What is this amateur hour? Even debuting director Marco Schnabel's direction is slack and amateurish, as there's no handle on momentum and some scenes go on way too long.
About 84 minutes too long, it's like a skit with too much goofy shtick and not enough material. Perhaps Myers should go back to Saturday Night Live skits--at least those were shorter and funnier.
87 min., rated PG-13.
1 and a half stars out of 4.
