Rating: PG-13
Starring:
Jessica Alba as Jane Bullard
Mike Myers as Guru Pitka / Young Pitka / Teenage Pitka / Himself
Justin Timberlake as Jacques Grande
Romany Malco as Darren Roanoke
Meagan Good as Prudence Roanoke
Omid Djalili as Guru Satchabigknoba
Verne Troyer as Coach Punch Cherkov
Ben Kingsley as Guru Tugginmypudha
Jessica Simpson as Herself
Kanye West as Himself
Deepak Chopra as Himself
Rob Blake as Himself
Manu Narayan as Rajneesh
John Oliver as Dick Pants
Stephen Colbert as Jay Kell
Special Features:
11 Deleted and Extended Scenes
Bloopers
3 Featurettes
Digital Copy
Outtakes & More!
Other Info:
Widescreen (2.35:1)
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Spanish and French Languages
Spanish and French Subtitles
Running Time: 86 Minutes
Synopsis:
The following is from the official synopsis of the film:
“Mike Myers plays the hilarious character The Guru Pitka!
As The Guru Pitka vies for the title of the world’s best self help guru, Pitka must help a star hockey player win his wife back from rival athlete Jacques “Le Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake) and, along with it, the Stanley Cup. Will Pitka’s comic karmic intervention be enough to turn this losing team into champions?”
“The Love Guru” is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, some comic violence and drug references.
Mini-Review:
Bad-mouthing “The Love Guru” is pretty much like beating a dead horse at this point. It didn’t do well at the box office and critics trashed it. That being said, I was curious to see if it was as bad as signs would indicate. Unfortunately, this was one of those cases where all the signs were correct.
The biggest problem with “The Love Guru” is that it’s a case of celebrity ego run amok. I’ve liked Mike Meyers in the past, but it’s quite apparent his influence was behind the worst aspects of this film. For example, in the real world Meyers is a friend and student of Deepak Chopra. While I’m sure he’s a nice enough fellow, he’s not enough to base a comedy character on. Meyers mentions Chopra again and again and again until you finally see him in person at the end of the film. It was shameless butt kissing.
Meyers is also a big hockey fan, and that’s a big aspect of this film. While sports parody can offer up a lot of comedy potential, they don’t make the most of it here. Throw in the fact that most Americans could care less about hockey and you have a problem for this movie. To make matters worse, Meyers is seen as himself at the very end screaming in the audience, “I love hockey!” If the previous 80 minutes didn’t convince you, Meyers beats you over the head with it.
Finally, Meyers runs every joke into the ground. For example, he sings “9 to 5” Indian style in the opening of the film and it’s kind of funny. He then sings two more songs in the same Indian style to the point where it’s not funny. Meyers also does an acronym to go with one of his deep sayings. It’s amusing, but he does it again and again and again. The same goes with the sex jokes, the fart jokes, the penis jokes, etc etc etc. It’s a major disappointment.
Many of the supporting cast members do their best to survive. There are amusing cameos by Val Kilmer, Jessica Simpson, and Mariska Hargitay (who proves to be an especially good sport). Stephen Colbert also is fun as an over-the-top sports announcer. Jessica Alba even fulfills her role well as a straight man for Meyers and eye candy. But others don’t survive as well, especially Ben Kingsley as Guru Tugginmypudha. As he sits there looking like Ghandi, you can’t help but wonder what went wrong with his career.
I’d only recommend “The Love Guru” to die-hard fans of Mike Meyers. They’ll probably be the ones most forgiving of this new speed bump in his filmography. Everyone else should probably just rent “Austin Powers” or “Wayne’s World” instead.
You’ll find your usual offering of bonus features here. There are deleted scenes, outtakes, bloopers, making-of featurettes, and other stuff. But one of the hightlights is more improvising by Stephen Colbert as Jay Kell and Jim Gaffigan as Trent Lueders as the announcers.
