REVIEW

Movie Review: The Love Guru

Written by The Masked Movie Snobs
Published June 21, 2008

Written by Hombre Divertido

Mike Myers has developed another character with comedic potential, but fails to provide said character with a script, supporting cast, director, or editor, to round out the comedic equation.

Guru Pitka (Myers) is hired by the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs (Jessica Alba) to council lovelorn superstar Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco). Vern Troyer is thrown in as the coach of the team so that Pitka can make jokes about the vertically challenged Troyer. The addition of Troyer is indicative of the film as a whole. The character of Pitka is funny, but the story is not, subsequently gags are inserted in an effort to add humor where there is none. The technique would work in a post 12:30 Saturday Night Live sketch, but it simply is not enough over the course of this 88-minute disappointment.

Justin Timberlake gives an energized performance as the well-endowed nemesis of Roanoke, but he is the only bright spot in the supporting cast. Alba, Malco, Troyer, and the horribly miscast Ben Kingsley are simply not funny and leave Myers longing for Mindy Sterling, Seth Green, or himself in another character.

Comedic announcers have become a standard in sports-themed films, and here the talented Jim Gaffigan and Stephen Colbert are employed to bring laughs to the hockey scenes. Unfortunately, the writing is so bad, that the only hope for hockey humor is to make Colbert a recovering addict. No goal.

Writers Myers and Graham Gordy manage some funny acronyms for Pitka to spew on his faithful followers, but the well-wishes expression “Mariska Hargitay” went over the heads of the audience. Almost as far over their heads as this assignment went over the head of first time director Marco Schnabel. The pacing is uneven and the set-ups for the jokes are horribly obvious and heavy handed.

Recommendation: The fecal funnies and booger bombs may appeal to the young, but the Myers faithful will be disappointed by this effort. Not enough comedy for a film that is less than an hour and a half long, and certainly less than enough comedy for you to spend your money on.

The Masked Movie Snobs are a collective that fights against bad entertainment.
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Movie Review: The Love Guru
Published: June 21, 2008
Type: Review
Section: Video
Filed Under: Review, Sports: Hockey, Video: Comedy
Writer: The Masked Movie Snobs
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Comments

#1 — June 21, 2008 @ 16:42PM — Chris Beaumont [URL]

You have the DVD already? I had to sit in a theater for this pile....

#2 — June 21, 2008 @ 16:55PM — Matt Paprocki [URL]

"but it simply is not enough over the course of this 128-minute disappointment."

and then:

"Not enough comedy for a film that is less than an hour and a half long,"

Huh?

Regardless, I laughed the whole way through. It's as low brow as you can get, but that's exactly what I want in a comedy. Offensive content, midgets, and loads of embarrasing one liners. I rarely stopped laughing through the entire movie. Sometimes you just have to let go.

#3 — June 21, 2008 @ 18:19PM — El Bicho [URL]

Title was an editor error, although talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

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