STUDIO: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2008
STARRING: Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Romany Malco, Justin Timberlake, Meagan Good
WRITTEN BY: Mike Myers, Graham Gordy
DIRECTED BY: Marco Schnabel
GENRE: Comedy
RATING: PG-13

Greetings from The Love Guru, dispenser of wisdom in bite-size chewable chunks, a soulful man of infinite knowledge with three goals on his mind: the Stanley Cup... then Oprah and a shot at his rival, Deepak Chopra, to become the new celebrity prince of self-help. An American boy raised on an Indian Ashram, Guru Pitka preaches enlightenment and self-knowledge, but like so many of us, he’s held captive by earthly temptations. This is the internal struggle for Mike Myers’ latest character, Guru, who, in the hands of anyone else, would be a mere conman. It might be the internal struggle that prompts some people to flee the theater, but Myers makes the Guru flawed and foolish, occasionally profound, and ultimately true to his heart and his word. However, like many sacred and spiritual philosophies around the world, Guru’s inherent and intentional flaws will be the source of heated debate, especially among moviegoers looking to rank the film on Myers' resume.

In the movie, Romany Malco (Weeds) plays Toronto Maple Leafs hockey star, Darren Roanoke, the Tiger Woods of hockey, whose game has suddenly gone cold. Adding to his troubles, his wife (Meghan Good) is sleeping with Los Angeles Kings goalie, Jacques ‘Le Coq’ Grande (Justin Timberlake). Enter Guru Pitka (Mike Myers), who’s hired by Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba), owner of the Maple Leafs, to help reunite Roanoke with his wife and win the Stanley Cup. For the Guru, it’s a shot at the Holy Grail: an appearance on Oprah.

Myers invented Guru Pitka in 1991, the same year he invented Austin Powers. Following the death of his father, Myers went on a spiritual quest of his own, visiting gurus and ashrams around the world. To his surprise, he found the experience to be an irresistible mix of the silly, sublime and sincere. These qualities define Pitka as he rides around on a floating pillow spouting absurd acronyms like G.U.R.U., which stands for "Gee, you are you!" If you find that funny, you’ll be at home with The Love Guru. If not, you’ll need to seek comedic self-help elsewhere.

Taking a cue from the Marx Brothers, who honed their routines over years on the vaudeville circuit and Broadway, Myers tried the character out in theaters around Manhattan. This process enabled him to inhabit the character so fully that, as in Austin Powers, a whole world emerges around him. Ultimately, whether audiences buy into the world Guru Pitka is the million-dollar question. It’s a universe that includes third eyes, chastity belts, and Bollywood dance numbers set to Dolly Parton’s "9 to 5" played on a sitar. It’s where Jessica Simpson and Val Kilmer are acolytes and geeky white guys sexually upstage African-American hockey stars.

While Myers brings what he learned from the set of Austin Powers to The Love Guru, creating a universe as unique as it is absurd, his latest is not without several flaws. Jessica Alba is saddled with a character that is glaringly underwritten, leaving her little more to do than be gorgeous and available for Guru’s desire. If Alba’s role is underwritten, Meagan Good’s role, as Roanoke’s wife, Prudence, is practically non-existent. Much of her time is spent ogling Justin Timberlake and little else. As for the biggest male pop star on the planet, despite a noteworthy performance, Timberlake practically disappears behind his French Canadian role of Jacques "Le Coq". He has wisely taken the long road to stardom. Instead of bursting on the scene in horribly bad movies like so many before him, Timberlake has taken a stealthy route as a supporting player in critically noted films like Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan and Southland Tales. In doing so, he hasn’t received a bad review yet and certainly won’t here either.

Verne Troyer, in his first sizable role since Mini Me, plays Maple Leaf coach Punch Cherkov. In the Austin Powers movies, Troyer was a hilarious presence without ever speaking a word. His new character is based on the fast talking real-life Punch Imlach who coached the Leafs in the sixties - all business, short-tempered, pugnacious and stubborn. An ex-stuntman, Troyer takes a beating as he’s literally tossed around the set. Adding insult to injury, he gamely suffers through jokes about his size. After so many years removed from Austin Powers, that’s still Troyer’s unavoidable shtick. A meeting in his office reveals miniature furniture and a ceiling so low that all but Troyer need to duck their heads. For those thinking The Love Guru lacks intellect, the mini-set is obviously a nod to the Marx Brothers’ At the Circus in which they hold a meeting in the midget’s quarters. In fact, The Love Guru is full of references to past movies from The Wizard of Oz to Wayne’s World to Peter Sellers in The Party. However, today’s audiences are a much different, and aggressive breed than in years past.

As for other peripheral characters, Stephen Colbert’s role as a drug-addicted sportscaster gets a few laughs, but there’s a reason why he’s still on TV and much funnier on The Colbert Report. The Daily Show’s John Oliver, however, fits well as Pitka’s business manager, Dick Pants while Ben Kingsley has an unexpected and effective cameo as Guru Tugginmypuddah, the cross-eyed, zany mentor to young Pitka. It’s a side of Kingsley we’ve never seen before - broad, silly and over the top but in a way that is tonally appropriate.

It’s no coincidence Myers lists Peter Sellers first among his influences. Myers has a knack for inhabiting ridiculous characters in a similar way that feels fully authentic, with his own unique brand of humor like Sellers. Steve Martin once said, "The most exciting thing to do is to find comedy where comedy hadn’t existed before." With The Love Guru, Myers does just that. Whether moviegoers will go there with him is the ultimate internal struggle that will need to be worked out.