How the mighty have fallen!

Rating: 3/10 (11 July 2008)

For context I'm a big Austin Powers/Waynes World fan so I *DO* get his humour and I'm not a brainless teen either. I'm a 34 year White male from England who enjoys both 'simple' comedy and more intelligent subtle stuff, if it matters. I've only said this as there is far too much talk of the reasons why people are rating this down but the movie itself is all the evidence you need to see why it's rated low.
Sadly I think the funny content from The Love Guru could have been condensed into a 5 minute SNL sketch and worked just as well (OK, would have worked better).
I felt the beginning was extremely rushed, the set up was poor and lazy. All the characters were lifeless drones and mostly arbitrary, I didn't know why I should care about anyone.
I felt Mike didn't make enough of his character, didn't develop him fully and it was to me a mix of 3 of his previous characters (Fat B******d, Dr Evil and Austin Powers) in one but not as funny or as strong as any of them, certainly not when it's just a single character trying to carry an entire film.
It was just weak all round, packed with overused/under-funny puns. There were one or two moments that were genuinely funny or amusing, but by about half way through I just gave up caring and found myself just not laughing anymore.
It didn't feel like a Mike Myers movie, it felt like someone had written/directed a movie that they THOUGHT captured the humour of Austin Powers but missed the mark badly. It was a 'by the numbers' attempt at the winning Austin Powers humour that just doesn't work with this set of characters and this plot. A very very thin plot I may add, even for a Mike Myers comedy.
On top of that you have the main cast who in my opinion were all miscast except for the main 'hockey player' character who was believable and did a decent job. Perhaps part of the problem though was that Mike Myers should have been playing these central characters himself to fully develop the humour in the film, then again maybe that's just wishful thinking given the terrible pacing and careless direction of the film.
I couldn't get a handle on just 'who' Guru Pitka 'was'. He was a mix of all MM's characters but none unique to the new character. It was just very hard to feel anything for GP as his persona seemed to change from scene to scene in the most haphazard/distracting way. A lack of consistency basically.
You could never accuse Dr Evil of fluctuating in character throughout a film to the point you give up believing in him or stop caring about his 'funny lines'. Essentially the main character of the Love Guru just isn't strong or compelling enough, maybe he'd be OK as a small character on an Austin Powers movie but he was dreadful as the lead (and only) Mike Myers character on an entire film.
Let's just hope they don't make 2 sequels to this terrible waste of talent and potential and with any luck they MAY realise just how special the Austin Powers films were and make some more of those instead of worrying about having to change for the sake of it. Change is good but only if you do better than before, Every single one of the Mike Myers characters that has appeared in an Austin Powers movie could have made a better lead character for a film or spin off than this totally unconvincing 'love guru'.
3/10 from me and that's only because of MM of whom I'm a big fan and appreciate for all of his previous, very very funny films.