His karma is huge. His laughter is small
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Marco Schnabel
Notable Cast:Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Romany Malco, Meagan Good, Verne Troyer, Stephen Colbert, Jim Gaffigan
Depending on your age, you know Mike Myers as one of several characters. For those who grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he’ll forever be metal head Wayne Campbell. Film buffs in the late 1990s will forever remember him as superspy Austin Powers. Children most likely know his whacky Scottish ogre Shrek. Now Myers has attempted to try and craft another franchise character in Pitka, The Love Guru.
Myers stars as the Guru Pitka, the world’s second greatest guru behind Deepok Chopra (who cameos as himself). Pitka wants to be the top guru in the world, and sees his opportunity to do so (and get on Oprah). Toronto Maple Leafs star Roanoke (Romany Malco) is the “Tiger Woods” of hockey but is in a bit of a funk. His wife Prudence (Meagan Good) has left him for his arch rival, L.A Kings goalkeeper Jaq “Le Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake). Hired by the owner of the Maple Leafs (Jessica Alba) to get Roanoke out of his funk in the midst of the Stanley Cup Finals, his job is to get to the two back together.
Riffing on the whole culture of neo-Eastern spirituality, the film starts out as a hilarious take on the sort of empty spirituality being sold as true religious thought on daytime television. For the first 20 minutes, before anything significant in the plot happens, the film is shockingly funny in how they parody the whole ‘self help” culture. And in bits throughout the film, the parody is absolutely ruthless. Myers hits plenty of jokes out of the park riffing on the subject, and obviously he’s done his homework in regards to that. It’s not brilliant or intellectual humor, as Myers is not really known for being a thinking man’s comedian, but it’s sufficient to cut the funny bone hard.
And if Myers just focused on that, the film would be great. The problem is that the rest of the film, that whole pesky plot thing, isn’t very good nor does it contain a lot of good jokes or humor. Myers, who wrote the film as well, doesn’t seem to have adapted well into the new era of comedy. 10 or 15 years ago he and Adam Sandler could make this sort of film and get away with it because the concept is pretty top notch; you could throw a character like Pitka out there, throw in some shenanigans, and you have a hit comedy. Now, as was Sandler’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan earlier in the month, you have to bring the comedic goods. Myers has basically recycled every joke that worked from the Austin Powers trilogy, including a series involving midget jokes with Verne Troyer (who became a star in that trilogy as Mini-Me), and is just using another funny accent to use them with. It’s disappointing to see one of the more successful comedians of the 1990s unable to adapt or at least use a different joke series. One half expects Pitka to do the “Schwing” bit at least once.
With perhaps the worst trailer of the year, right ahead of Meet Dave, The Love Guru is not the worst film of the year. It’s just a bad one.
