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The Love Guru
Score: 80%
Rating: PG-13
Publisher: Paramount
Region: 1
Media: Blu-ray/1
Running Time: 86 Mins.
Genre: Comedy
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby True HD,
           French 5.1 Dolby Digital,
           Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French,
           Spanish, Portuguese


Features:
  • Digital Copy DVD
  • Mike Myers and The Love Guru - An Inside Look
  • One Hellava Elephant
  • Hockey Training for Actors
  • Deleted and Extended Scenes
  • Bloopers
  • Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay
  • Outtakes
  • Theatrical Trailer

Mike Myers returns in another movie that, well, feels just like a Mike Myers comedy. The Love Guru is a slapsticky film filled with double entendres, silly characters and absurd situations.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs finally get a chance at the Stanley Cup after 40 years of being "cursed" by the team's owners, their hopes fall to Guru Pitka (Myers), because their star player, Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco, 40 Year-Old Virgin) has lost his nerves on the ice ever since his wife, Prudence (Meagan Good), has shacked up with rival player Jacques "Le Coq" Grande (Justin Timberlake).

The team's owner, Jane (Jessica Alba), much to the chagrin of the coach (played by Verne Troyer), flies Pitka in to help solve Roanoke's problems so that they can finally win the Stanley Cup. But Pitka isn't looking at this job as just another notch on his Guru belt. There is also the possibility of appearing on Oprah, just so he can try and surpass his persona rival since everyone sees him as the world's number two guru.

Pitka travels with his elephant, a slew of women, his faithful servant, Rajneesh (Manu Narayan) and his manager Dick Pants (John Oliver), and it will take all of their help, along with Pitka's vast wisdom and training, to sort out the twisted emotions that keep Darren from performing his best on the ice. Meanwhile, Pitka will be doing a little growing on his own as he falls in love with Jane, but because of a vow of celibacy imposed on him by his own master, he cannot realize his love with her.

Quite frankly, there is a whole lot of chemistry in this movie. Whether you are talking about the interaction between Alba and Myers, or Myers and Troyer (their characters do not get along at all), or even the love triangle between Malco, Meagan Good and Timberlake, it's obvious that everyone worked well together and they were comfortable as a cast.

The Love Guru comes with quite a few special features as well. One commentary talks about how Mike Myers developed his character, while another feature talks about the visual effects department's work in creating an elephant puppet and an ostrich puppet. But my favorite feature was "Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay" which focused on the movie's two hockey announcers (played by Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan). This particular feature showed a ton of segments that the two filmed from different parts of the movie, and while the best of these were chosen to show in the film itself, the leftovers are far from ordinary. Gaffigan's attempt at playing a straight man to Colbert's druggy and out-of-it character makes the two a pretty good pair, and a joy to watch.

If you find most Mike Myers movies hit and miss, then there is a good chance this one could fall closer to the miss side for you. While not as spectacular as the Austin Powers movies, many similarities can be drawn between those movies and The Love Guru (especially when discussing comedic style), so your opinion of The Love Guru will probably follow close to that of the Austin Powers movies.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer
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