THE LOVE GURU

"D.R.A.M.A"

The Guru Pitka (Myers) is the number two love guru in the world, after Deepak Chopra but he might have just found the chance to become number and fore fill his dream of appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show. All he has to do is bring superstar ice hockey player Darren Roanoke (Malco) and his wife Prudence (Good) back together so he can regain his form and win the Stanley Cup for his team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The problem is that Prudence has found herself another man, LA Kings star player Jacques Grande (Timberlake) and he isn't going to let her go that easily and the Guru himself is distracted by the beautiful Maple Leafs owner Jane Bullard (Alba).

For the man who was once the Comedy King of Hollywood, Mike Myers has been resting on his laurels for far too many years but can his return in 'The Love Guru' allow him to regain his crown?

There was a time when Mike Myers could do no wrong. He transferred his beloved 'Saturday Night Live' character Wayne Campbell to the silver screen in the two hit 'Wayne's World' movies, made a serial killer funny in 'So I married an Axe Murder', showed he could act as night club owner Steve Rubell in '54' and become the world's second favourite secret agent in the 'Austin Powers' trilogy. From this he was contacted by Jeffery Katzenberg at DreamWorks Animation to voice what would become their biggest computer animated hit character 'Shrek' but after his appearance in 'The Cat in the Hat' in 2003, we have only ever heard Mike Myers' voice as the big green Ogre. In 2008 however, this all changed and Mike Myers has returned but it is just a shame that he has forgotten about how to be original.

For 'The Love Guru', Myers has created a new character in the form of Guru Pitka, an American orphan brought up in India by Guru Tugginmypudha, played by a very amusing Ben Kingsley, who returns to his native US to solve the marital problems of star hockey player Darren Roanoke, 'Weeds' star Romany Malco. Roanoke's wife Prudence, played by the beautiful Megan Good, has left him for fellow star player Jacques 'Le Coq' Grande, Justin Timberlake with an appalling French accent, and it is affecting his game. The Toronto Maple Leafs owner Jane Bullard, played by the gorgeous Jessica Alba, has hired Guru Pitka to solve this but the Guru is distracted by the owner, much to the detriment of the good of the team. While this may sound like a recipe for laughter, there are far too many ingredients missing.

Firstly, there are no real laugh out loud moments here. As with many comedies, the best jokes were given away in the trailer and the rest are a little too crude to really get you laughing. Secondly and most importantly, the character of Guru Pitka just doesn't work. He is an amalgamation of 'Wayne Campbell', 'Austin Powers' and nearly every other character Myers has created. There is nothing original here is the slightest, making you wonder if he can do anything original or if he has just ran out of ideas completely. Add to these points a tired story and even more repeating of gags from other movies, just watch all of the gags thrown at Verne Troyer again, and you have a movie that really isn't worth even the most hardened Mike Myers fan's time.

'The Love Guru' is a huge disappointment for Mike Myers and comedy fans alike. With the lead character been so similar to everything he has done before and the story not providing any real laugh out loud moments, this movie reveals Mike Myers' limitations as a comedian and shows that he really needs to reinvent himself to push onto that next level.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is good.

BONUS FEATURES

Mike Myers and the Love Guru - An Inside Look (9.13 mins)
Director Marco Schnabel and stars Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Verne Troyer and Mariska Hargitay talk about making 'The Love Guru'. With characters discussed, the improvisation of the lines and the many cameos in the film, this is a decent featurette.

One Hellava Elephant (5.31 mins)
Special Effects supervisor Ron Stefaniuk talks about how he and his creative team produced the mechanical elephant for Guru Pitka to ride.

Hockey Training for Actors (7.43mins)
2nd Unit director/Hockey Coordinator Mark Ellis and stars Mike Myers and Romany Malco talk about making the hockey scenes look realistic and the amount of training Malco had to go through to look like a star Hockey player

Deleted and Extended Scenes (13.11 mins)
Entitled 'Jane's office/Grande Interview #1', 'Cherkov on Ice', 'Darren's performance anxiety', 'Stick mop', 'Happy Pack', 'More fun at the Old Log In', 'Grande Interview #2', 'Bill Ford with very special guests', 'Nuts', 'Cabbie Fight' and 'Alternate Ending', these deleted scenes suffer from the lack of a commentary track or introduction to explain why they were not used.

Bloopers (3.40 mins)
Watch the cast make a hash of their line and have fun with improvisations

Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay (4.57 mins)
Watch all of the booth outtakes and improvisations with Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan as Jay Kell and Trent Lueders.

Outtakes and More (9.49 mins)
Watch some of the hilarious outtakes and antics from the shoot of the 'Love Guru'.

Theatrical Trailer (2.27 mins)
Watch the trailer that previewed the film in theatres and on the Internet

OVERALL

The DVD treatment for 'The Love Guru' is good but it could have been better. The lack of a commentary track is a little disappointing and some of the featurettes are a little short. It would have also been good to see Mike Myers become Guru Pitka. This aside, this is still a good package that fans should enjoy.

DVD

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2008