“Love Guru” Blu-ray Review
Panned, beaten and broken at the box office, The Love Guru just didn’t meet the mark that the studio and movie goers had hoped it would. With a poor box office intake, The Love Guru’s stint in theaters was short lived and was soon (not) laughed out of theaters. As poorly as the film id, one would expect the film to be completely devoid of humor and/or substance. While it’s true the film is lacking, the poor reception by audience and critics may have been a tad bit overblown.
When Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) is having trouble with his marriage and his hockey game, the Love Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) is called in to help return him return to form. What Pitka doesn’t realize is that awaiting him in Toronto is the love of his life and a much greater task than just simply reuniting Roanoke with his wife. With a supporting cast of Jessica Alba and Justine Timberlake, The Love Guru features a cavalcade of surprise guest stars as well as the hilarious duo of Jim Gaffigan and Stephen Colbert as two sports announcers who just can’t get it right.
First off, I loved the Austin Powers films. I even loved the last one, which I thought was the best out of the trilogy. So that should give you some place to ground my thoughts when I say that I really enjoyed The Love Guru. Yes…I actually truly mean that. I have a low tolerance for stupid films, yet the flow of poop jokes and repeats of other Myers staples from his other films had me laughing throughout the film. While I did enjoy it, I’ll be right up there with the rest of them when I say the film is not original in the least; it is just a retread of Myers past works and by the time the film is finished you feel like you could have just transplanted Austin Powers in the role and retooled some of the dialogue and it would have worked just as well.
The general census is this movie was a pile of elephant doo doo, but quite honestly it was just the general Mike Myers fair. Perhaps audiences don’t remember his Austin Power character and how unoriginal that was? This is just more of the same and unless you hate Mike Myers, I’m not entirely certain how you wouldn’t find this film to be at least partially funny. Maybe I just laughed more because I expected it to be complete crap and was instead surprised that I was actually laughing at some of the things in the film; my cheeks weren’t hurting from laughter, but it was nowhere near as bad as the critics (and the 3.7 on IMDb) made it out to be.
I’m sure I’m being laughed at for saying that, but it’s the truth. I was fully expecting to write a review about how Myers lost his touch and that this was the first notch in the decline of his career, but…nope. I enjoyed it and I’ll leave it at that. Admittedly it may have had to do with Jim Gaffigan and Stephen Colbert, two of my favorite comedians, being together in the sports casters booth. I haven’t seen Gaffigan play it straight before, but he was absolutely hilarious. Colbert, on the other hand, pretty much just stole the show with every scene he was in—off the wall and on all kinds of drugs, his character was just a riot to watch.
Overall while the film is pretty much unoriginal and the same ol’ Mike Myers shtick, but if you enjoy that shtick then this film is worth checking for a bit. Or just ask yourself this: does a grown man making diarrhea sounds in a coffee cup sound amusing to you? Because that’s really the ultimate test into whether you’ll enjoy this movie or not; or maybe you should just ignore all of that and continue thinking it’s a horrible film and when the times to actually see you, you’ll realize that maybe it should be a little bit higher in rating. Rent It.
The Blu-ray
The Love Guru arrives in a two-disc set for Blu-ray, with the second disc being devoted entirely to the digital copy. Insert includes a piece of paper with the digital movie code, while the disc art for both is the usual Paramount grey wash (a little distinction between which disc is which would have been nice). Menus are simple and easy to navigate, while the video and audio is quite impressive for a comedy that got so panned. Colors are strong and the detail is high, with a nice matted affect kicking in for the random musical piece between Myers and Alba. The audio is also clean and clear, with decent channel separation that really pushes in when the musical pieces in the film get tossed in. That is another thing to note about the film—there’s the random songs that are in the film for no real reason and seem to be something but time filler/waster. Not a huge deal, but I did begin to wonder why they kept cropping up while watching it.
Moving into the extras area we actually get a fair bit of pieces to sort through. First up is “Mike Myers and the Love Guru” (9:36) which talks about the making of the film and how it came about. “One Hellava Elephant” (5:44) tackles F/X shots used in the film and how the elephant humping sequence was made (see!? There is some quality stuff in the film!). “Hockey Training for Actors” (8:03) stresses the importance of making the Hockey look real, as Myers himself stated he owed it to his Canadian brethren to not allow the hockey to look hokey.
Next we have a series of Deleted and Extended Scenes (13:46, 11 total) that don’t add a whole lot to the film and are easily left out. “Bloopers” (3:48) is all too short in length; while “Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay” (5:09) is worth checking out the disc for in of itself. Gaffigan and Colbert improving with one another is just absolutely priceless. “Outtakes and More” (10:14) is another reel of bloopers, this one a bit more meaty and filled with some genuinely funny stuff. Finally we have the Theatrical Trailer (2:31).
All in all a solid release in the extras department. Commentary isn’t necessary, nor would many listen to it I wager. Still, here is some humor to be had from this film, but if you don’t like Myers then I’d just skip on past this one. Otherwise, give it a Rental.
The Love Guru is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.