From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie The Love Guru released in 2008.
Starring:
Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Romany Malco
Directed by:
Marco Schnabel
Genre:
Comedy, Romance, Sport
Rating:
PG-13
Budget:
$62,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb Rating is currently:
3.8
My Rating:
6.7
The Synopsis is:
Guru Pitka, the love guru must unite, hockey player, Darren Roanoke with his wife, Prudence in order to prove that he is the next Deepak Chopra and get on the Oprah Winfrey show. All the while the guru is himself need of love advice.
Enjoyment:
The response from this film was really bad to the point of utter mean spiritedness which I was just a little curious about. Is it really that bad?
In my opinion, it’s flawed, but it’s not horrible. It’s not the worst film I ever saw, and it’s not the worst film of 2008. I’m finding that a lot of these so called horrible films are just films with big budgets that are just kind of OK, and people were disappointed in the big names behind them.
At first I really didn’t want to review this film because I felt that I could be adding flames to the fire. As well as talk about the good, I have to in all good conscience talk about the bad as well.
And after thinking about it for a while I decided that this is exactly the kind of film I have to review. A film with a good heart, that missed the mark. And maybe just a few people might actually find some valuable life lessons and teachings that were oddly found in this comedy.
*WARNING: FROM THIS POINT FORWARD THERE MAY BE SPOILERS!*
Pacing:
At an hour and 27 minutes, it’s short, but it feels long and there were a few timing issues that I’ll talk about later in the review.
Story:
The story really begins from what I could ascertain from interviews and noble resources on the internet, is that the love guru began as a discarded character from Mike Myers's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me released in 1999. One of my favorite movies by the way.
The reportedly, idea was revived again after Mike Myers sought the help of real life self help guru, Deepak Chopra. They became friends and the experience began to inspire the idea for the love guru movie.
Rumors say the Mike tested the guru out in his stand up shows and got the courage to move forward with his movie idea based on the audience response.
Mike co-produced and co-wrote the script with Graham Gordy influenced by inspirations from Mike’s real life.
Mike Myers has been a longtime supporter of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League in Canada, which is also where Mike is from.
Previously in the first Austin Powers movie Commander Gilmour and General Borschevsky were characters named after then Maple Leafs players Doug Gilmour and Nikolai Borschevsky.
There is a scene where Guru Pitka and the owner of the Maple Leafs, Jane Bullard are on a plane and she tells him that she turned to gurus when her dad died. This mirrors what actually happened to Mike Myers after his father died.
To me these connections were pretty endearing, however too short lived.
Because the main point of the movie is the fact that it is a comedy and a comedy by Mike Meyers so most people are quite familiar with what they are getting.
He delivers the same humor he did from Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and Cat in the Hat. Dare we call them Myerisms.
He breaks the 4th wall constantly, snickering into the camera. He does it in every comedy film he’s in. It’s his thing. And the guru is no different from any of his other characters, really.
Along with that are endless pop culture references of the time, that you know, that are sometimes a hit and sometimes a miss… But that is also part of his trademark.
Some of the biggest references are from, 9 to 5 (1980), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Electric Company (TV Series) 1971, Enter the Dragon (1973), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) (TV Series), Battlestar Galactica (1978) (TV Series) where one of the sports reporters get high and says in a cylon voice, "By your command.", Wayne's World (1992) as a song playing on the radio station Pitka changes to in a car is Bohemian Rhapsody, Star Trek: Amok Time (1967) (TV Episode), The stink mop fight spoofs the famous gladiator scene in this episode, and music from the show is also used, Gandhi (1982)
Ben Kingsley makes fun of his Gandhi image.
Challenge:
The challenge in the film is the guru’s desire to become the number one Guru in the world. This gets the guru in troubling situations, but there is no ultimate evil to battle.
The only villain you get in the film could be Jacques LeCoq Grande, the rival of Darren Roanoke and the guy who has become Prudence’s new boyfriend. His name playing off the metaphor of the fowl that refers to a private part on the male anatomy. He is well endowed, which seems to demasculinize the other men in the film.
You get the sense that he is not in love with Prudence and his main goal in life is just one-upping Darren. But even he is not totally bad. He’s just a small obstacle and not threatening at all.
The only other character that could be contrary to the protagonist, is Darren’s mother, who cannot let go of her son. She seems to be the key to the real wedge between Prudence and Darren.
The biggest problem with all of the challenges is that they get resolved rather simply as if they never really posed a threat to begin with, unfortunately making their value very insignificant.
Empathy:
The Guru Pitka is off putting because he’s a parody of a guru and gurus are pretty much well respected in our world and not usually the subject of jokes. I guess you could find one particular guru and impersonate them, pulling out all of their idioms and quirks, but it’s considered a little in bad taste because of the work that they are doing to help people.
The
Guru pitka is a fictional character full of whimsey and a jovial demeanor. He kinda reminds me of Mr. Magoo, where we have someone who you’re not sure knows what he's doing but he always succeeds.
What I like about the character is that the guru is flawed because he is doing it because he wants to be liked and accepted by society. He feels that he will reach his goal when he overthrows Deepak Chopra as the top guru in the world. He dreams of being on Oprah to affirm his success.
He’s selfish and ambitious. He’s human.
I think that the part that really loses my empathy is the fact that there is a ridiculous love story brewing between the Guru and the owner of the Maple Leafs hockey team, Jane Bullard. And the convolution of the fact he has to wear a chastity belt until he learns to love himself.
My question is why on earth would she find the Guru attractive? She might find Mike Myers attractive, but not the Guru, at least not physically.
It would be another thing if she was attracted to his soul, but he not attractive in that respect either because he is not a self practicing guru. He is greedy, immature and vain and always hocking his book in simple conversations.
And the other main part of their union that is disturbing is the fact that here we have yet another movie with a young woman with a older man. It’s not a problem if the Guru had loveable traits, but it leaves you scratching your head trying to figure out why this is happening?
The film is every bit as much about Darren Roanoke, explained to be the Tiger Woods of hockey.
There is a rumor that Darren was named after The Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs, a professional ice hockey team in Roanoke, Virginia.
Darren left his wife Prudence because he was insecure, but then realised that he made a big mistake. That all makes a whole lot of sense and it will surely take a lot of work to get her back…
However, Darren has the burden of settling personal problems with his mother and winning the big game. So you do root for him.
Technical:
There really is no information on the production of this film, but you can see the effort that was placed to make many of the surreal gags and images.
The special effects are pretty cool for the gags and they weren’t meant to just be a part of this fantasy. They weren’t going for realism and from that you get some pretty bold colorful visuals. It sets the tone that this world is a fantasy world.
The sets and backgrounds are fun and elaborate. It reminds me of the old grand musicals of the 1940’s when no expense was too great to show their grandeur.
The soundtrack is filled with lots of pop culture songs, and two of them Mike Myers performs himself.
Performances:
The performances were pretty good.
Mike Meyers, is doing his very best in the film. He is notorious for being a perfectionist and he seems to love doing characters that he can disappear into physically. And if I could truthfully break it down, technically, the idea of the love guru as a character should have worked, but it was the premise of the story that didn’t work.
Jessica Alba was decent in the role of Jane, but I feel that she was not challenged as an actress to deliver something new to the audience. In turn her performance didn’t stand out in all of the weird madness on screen.
Justin Timberlake was really a lot of fun in the film playing LeCoq. He is so dedicated to it that he’s very entertaining to me. I couldn’t stop laughing when he was on screen.
Another stand out in the film is Romany Malco. He pretty much stands out in every film he does, but it’s really about the opportunities to showcase what he can do and in this film, he is doing his very best to make this ridiculous premise real for character. And there were a couple of times that he makes his scenes seem realistic.
Also Verne Troyer joins Mike Myers for a 3rd time on film. The first two were Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), then Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
I was so pleased to see Verne is playing the tough coach Cherkov. When he is given the chance really to act, he’s good. I wish we had seen more of it and less size related jokes.
As revealed on an episode of Through the Keyhole (2013), Verne Troyer kept much of the small-sized furniture in Coach Cherkov's office, that was designed for the film, and used them in his own house.
Celebrity minor parts were… Meagan Good, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert who got my biggest laugh, Jim Gaffigan who was also my next biggest laugh, Ben Kingsley, and Telma Hopkins.
As many of Myer’s previous exploits, there are many, many celebrity cameos such as Jessica Simpson, Kanye West, Deepak Chopra, Daniel Tosh, Rob Huebel, Mariska Hargitay, and Val Kilmer.
Best:
The best part of the film for me was when Roanoke had a really sweet heart to heart with the Guru telling him why he wanted to reunite with prudence. It was such a nice moment.
Another part for me that I consider the best attributes of the film came in the form of the Guru’s acronyms and sayings. Some of them were really immature, but there were a couple of them that were very good.
My favorite is the “intimacy = into me I see” saying. The concept is that if you can look into your own thoughts, you will discover yourself. True intimacy that humans are always seeking in other people can never be fulfilled until one looks within.
It’s deep and meaningful. But I think there’s so much other stuff that is happening in the film that many people either miss that message or are too distracted by the superfluous antics to care.
I got a few laughs out of the film and oddly enough, the best one for me was not intended to be funny… or maybe it was supposed to be funny. I am not sure. But it is the scene in which Jane and the guru Pitka is having dinner and she has just been kinda rejected by him when she tries to kiss him. She gets up and he says, Jane wait,” And in the next clip she is half way down the hall. I just thought that was so funny and I nearly fell out of my chair about how ridiculous that edit was. I really hope that was done on purpose.
The ending:
The ending was OK, but a little quick to wrap things up pretty fast for that big show tune ending.
Wish List:
I really feel as if this film could have been Austin Powers 4: The Love Guru. Where Austin goes undercover as a love guru to save the world from a maniacal sports fanatic.
I think it really would have worked that way because there are a lot of the same jokes are in it that we’ve seen before in Austin Powers. Now, suddenly the prosthetic nose and accent makes sense, to disguise himself.
Also, this fantasy world of the Love Guru really makes more sense in an Austin Powers film, because the audience knows that his world is a parody of a fictional spy world, full of shenanigans.
An another option would be to go the serious route. Make the story more realistic, with situational comedy provided by the plucky and eccentric Love Guru Pitka playing a secondary character with intrinsic wisdom to guide Darren who would be the lead focus the film.
The film really needed to strike an emotional chord with the audience and I think Darren was the way to go.
I wished that the love interest for the Guru Pitka was abandoned, because there is no on screen chemistry between the Guru and Jane. He negates the internal journey of his own intimacy saying he teaches by pretty much seeking a physical payoff to have sex with Jane.
Also, there was one joke that fell flat and I think it would have really been well received if it were done differently. It is the Mariska Hargitay joke.
Guru Pitka says that as a salutation during the entire movie. Nearly at the beginning of the film, the actress Mariska Hargitay appears closing the joke and when we hear the greeting later, it has no potency.
I wish she appeared near the end of the film, so the audience can feel as if they earned the joke and it came full circle.
Summary:
The film was a huge flop at the box office and it was critically panned universally but in my honest opinion, I liked it. It’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t even come close. It is still a coherent story. And to me, most of the jokes are what I would expect from Mike Myers.
It’s an OK film, capitalizing on Mike Myers’ comedy stylings, which audiences praised him for in other films. Poop jokes, genital jokes, celebrity cameos, musical numbers, 4th wall winks and product placement.
So audiences were pretty used to all of the gags in the film. What was so different now?
I think it was mainly because spiritual enlightenment is something people just don’t find funny along with immature humor. It needed a more sophisticated kind of humor.
Perhaps too, audiences changed. Many reviewers commented on how they expected better and I think that, Mike Myers seemed to have taken the hit pretty hard, keeping a very low profile since the film’s release.
He did appear in a small supporting role in the well-received film Inglourious Basterds in 2009. As well, Myers later poked fun at the film in an appearance of Saturday Night Live 2014.
Look, I wasn’t crazy about all of the jokes in the film but there were a few good ones. And ultimately I liked the film a little more than most people did for the hidden deeper significance, I found to be quite meaningful.
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it.
This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
If you enjoy my content and want me to continue you can help at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/retronerdgirl
Follow Retro Nerd Girl on twitter: https://twitter.com/Retro_Nerd_Girl
Like Retro Nerd Girl on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retronerdgirl
No comments:
Post a Comment