Mathew Buck: Film Brain

Quotes 

• Film Brain : You can see the seeds of The Love Guru in the Austin Powers sequels that increasingly relied on crude humor and penis jokes, but this takes it to a whole new level. I hate to place all the blame on Mike Myers, but when he's the main creative force and is in virtually every scene, it's hard not to. He's downright insufferable in this movie, a giggling nutcase who is so desperate, it makes you wonder if Myers was ever really funny. He's so the center of attention here, that he forgets to give many of his supporting players any material of their own, despite a cast of talented actors and comedians who flail around just as badly. The paper-thin plot is simply all about the gags in the movie disregarding logic, sense, or continuity, which is the crucial context of making them funny. Compounding this is despite Myers' hiatus, many of them are recycled old material from Austin Powers, including Verne Troyer himself, while you're beaten over the head with crass sex jokes over and over, just like all the other lame pieces of humor in this movie, and it makes it seem as though Myers' sense of humor stopped developing at age 10. The worst thing is, this movie sells Myers' talent short as a comedian, and it's so dispiriting because we know he can do so much better. The only real positive is that at least it's less than ninety minutes, no doubt thanks to some heavy trimming. UK comedian Omid Djalili gets prominent billing despite having all his lines cut in the one scene he appeared in, and given he was playing Guru Satchabigknoba, I think maybe we should all be thankful for that. All I know is that somewhere in the deepest, darkest pits of Hell, this and The Master of Disguise are playing as the most punishing double feature ever made, and if you don't want to take your memory of Mike Myers, stay as away from this as humanly possible!