Thoroughly dispiriting 'comeback'; knocked out in the first round.

Rating: 1/10 (12 December 2010)

They played this one on TV, and I happened to be in the room, pottering about on a Sunday evening. That is the only reason I decided to watch this, because it's been out for two years and one has to have been in an isolation tank not to have heard what a turkey 'The Love Guru' is. It almost made those rubbish Troma movies appear amusing, or at least on a par. On a par, in this case, with the belated 'comeback' effort of a formerly successful and well-liked comedy writer-director-actor whose career had bloomed in the 1990s and floundered in the 2000s. After revisiting his most successful creation (1960s spy-spoof 'Austin Powers') with a third trip to the well in 2002, Myers' live-action movie career stumbled with definitive misfire 'The Cat In The Hat' in 2003. For the next five years Myers remained off-screen, voicing the title character of the animated 'Shrek' movie franchise, until...'The Love Guru'. The movie's many faults are detailed by other posters, but what struck me was how truly sad an experience it was. A genuinely heart-sinking experience akin to watching an old dog trying to jump the fence one time too many. Myers' sense of comedy has gone seriously -and perhaps permanently- adrift, and he has effectively taken a mildly diverting two-minute TV show sketch and stretched it to micron-thinness over a motion picture frame. Look, shall we just do both Mike Myers and ourselves a favour and remember him as he was; i.e. cute and funny? This sad, sobering movie is like a chapter from 'Hollywood Babylon'.