The Love Guru Review
This was a mixed bag. If it wasn’t for fighting logos and roosters I might have come down on the negative side of this thing but thankfully those two bits more than save the movie in my opinion. Overall it alternates between tired gags that have been done to death not just in other Myers’ outings such as the Austin Powers series but in comedy films generally. Perhaps there was an aspect of the expectations game – I expected a different but equally impressive brilliance but while the movie didn’t quite meet that threshold it was still very good overall.
As for the Daily Show alum I’m always happy to see them but I felt they were somewhat underutilized. Stephen Colbert was a limited, and yet somehow more absurd, version of his character from The Colbert Report only put into the world of sports – he was still funny but he would have had as much to play if he was a guest host of Celebrity Deathmatch. As for John Oliver I was hoping to see more range from him – his bit of semi-yelling ludicrous things is funny but gets old, he featured somewhat prominently in the film but his appearance, while welcome, largely felt like a missed opportunity.
In fact the one person who really impressed me was the person who played Pitka’s assistant. His straight face would be a worthy successor to Leslie Nielson but he also served other roles. Sadly he was given more to play in terms of range than Colbert and Oliver combined and I look forward to seeing him again hopefully.
The chick from Family Matters was a surprise, but her character was rather one-dimensional.
It’s essentially light-heart fare but will not meet elevated expectations, perhaps it’s merely targeting a younger audience who finds the sight and gross-out gags more enjoyable.
