Forced Farce

Rating: 4/10 (23 June 2008)

I m a fan of the Austin Powers movies, and so I was looking forward to seeing "The Love Guru."
Here's my opinion: The Love Guru is to Austin Powers what "Hot Shots: Part Deux" is to "Airplane." What I mean is that both movies want to achieve the same result and have similar formats and formulas, but one nails it and the other is a half-hearted attempt.
Let me try to say it a different way... If the Austin Powers movies are Mad Magazine quality. The Love Guru is "Cracked" magazine (remember that crappy rip-off of the Mad format?)
I miss the fresh double entendre of Austin Powers. What we get instead is a close-up of a BOOGER complete with NASAL HAIRS. Luckily I neglected to buy popcorn, or I would've retched! Same goes for the "stinkmop" scene.
I was amazed by the "What is it you can't face?" scene (look it up) that I saw in one of the trailers (the trailers included just about every other funny scene as well.) I thought it was brilliant wordplay. Then I went online and discovered it was ripped off from a comedy routine by Caroline Rhea and the movie "The Sound Of Music!" WTF?
Here's the part of the movie that really made me laugh (yes there was one.) While we are watching two elephants having sex (yes you read that right) the camera cuts to two obese people who kiss and say "I love you." That was funny. The other entertaining scene was a Bollywood flashback in which Myers and Jessica Alba sing in Indian complete with subtitles. It looked really retro complete with the 35mm film slipping off the projector gears. Nice fourth wall removal!
The rest of the movie seems really forced. Myers appears to be trying too hard. The Love Guru says "When love goes wrong, nothing goes right." Didn't Mike Myers recently (in 2006) divorce his long-time wife?
Hmmmmmmmm..