Movie Review: “The Love Guru”
Mike Myers in “The Love Guru.”
Rating: 26
“The Love Guru” reeks of desperation, testing the already stretched boundaries of what Mike Myers will do for a cheap, exhausted laugh. But since there is an audience for urine-soaked mop fights, elephant sex scenes and humor at the expense of nearly all physical conditions, “The Love Guru” is here to tap that demographic with a sledgehammer.
Myers plays Guru Pitka, an American-born, Indian-raised self-help titan with a flair for 6th grade toilet humor. Since their childhood studies under master guru Tugginmypudha (Ben Kingsley), Pitka has competed against rival Deepak Chopra for the affections of the masses and, of course, Oprah Winfrey.
Myers and Jessica Alba in “The Love Guru.”
When the Toronto Maple Leafs’ star player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) loses his mojo, team owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) hires Guru Pitka to work his self-help magic on the jittery stick man. Roanoke has any number of mother issues and anger problems, but his bete noire is Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake), the flamboyant Quebecois goalie for the L.A. Kings who seduced his wife, Prudence (Meagan Good).
This wafer-thin premise is just the framework on which Myers can hang his pre-adolescent anatomy laughs and cultural stereotypes. He trucks in flatulence and sexual humor at wholesale levels; Myers never goes half the distance with his projects. And on some occasions, he hits his mark: a hilarious Bollywood musical parody early in “The Love Guru” is deadly accurate.
But such references are far too lofty when the bulk of “The Love Guru” is bottom-rung, and many of the gags are stolen, including a running Timberlake gag lifted directly from “Bachelor Party,” of all things. Even the tacked-on ending is a direct steal from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”
This folly is reminiscent of late-career movies the similarly costume-obsessed Peter Sellers made when he needed alimony money, such as “The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu” or “The Prisoner of Zenda.” Like Sellers, Myers is a great talent, and it’s a shame to see him flailing around in “The Love Guru,” a mess of a comedy that cannot do much for his karma.
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Great review, Jorge, but you were even too kind. “The Love Guru” might rival “Norbit” in the hall of fame of Marquee Name Embarrassments.