Born in America, but raised in Havemahkeeta in India, with a population of 76, Maurice had always to better Deepak Chopra, and be sexually active, ever since he was 12. His Guru, Tugginmypudha, while approving of Deepak, cautions Maurice and has a chastity belt put around his waist. Years later, Maurice has established himself as Guru Pitka in America, but would like to appear in the Oprah Show and be better than Deepak Chopra. When Jane Bullard from the the Toronto Maple Leafs hires him to counsel their star hockey player, Darren Roanoke, to win back his wife, Prudence, from Kings' star player, Jacques Grande, and also stand up to his dominating mother, Lilian, he agrees to do so – with hilarious results.
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, Sport
Runtime: 87 minutes
Rating: 3.8/10 (18,798 votes)
Release Date: 20 June 2008
Country: USA, UK, Germany
Languages: English
Company: Paramount Pictures
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, some comic violence and drug references.
Director(s): Marco Schnabel
Producer(s):
Gary Barber – executive producer
Roger Birnbaum – executive producer
Michael De Luca – producer
Sean Gannet – associate producer
Graham Gordy – associate producer
Donald J. Lee Jr. – producer
Mike Myers – producer
Alli Shearmur – production executive
Writer(s):
Mike Myers – (written by) &
Graham Gordy – (written by)
Cast:
Mike Myers – Maurice / Guru Pitka / Young Pitka / Teenage Pitka / Himself
Jessica Simpson – Herself
Jessica Alba – Jane Bullard
Kanye West – Himself
Justin Timberlake – Jacques 'Le Coq' Grande
Deepak Chopra – Himself
Rob Blake – Himself
Meagan Good – Prudence Roanoke
Ben Kingsley – Guru Tugginmypudha
Romany Malco – Darren Roanoke
Music: George S. Clinton
Tagline: His Karma is Huge
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For the life of me I don't understand how reviewers have given Zohanand Get Smart better overall average star ratings than this movie. Ofthe three this flick has the most laughs. Of course the topic of thismovie : new-age pseudo middle eastern self help spirituality is a bigpill to swallow. I believe that this movie suffered bad reviews forseveral reasons that actually had nothing to do with whether it waswell done or not.
In explanation of this I will offer several thoughts. 1)The maincharacter is a white guy with obvious ethnic / cultural trappings.ThisI believe made it harder for audiences to relate to. We need to havelead characters clearly defined in their nationality and other aspectsof their character. Guru Pitka admittedly was a bit ambiguous.Was hesupposed to be East Indian? This ethnic group not nearly as "cool"asbeing black or Hispanic,was not warmly embraced by north Americanaudiences to be sure. As one friend asked me , "Is he supposed to beEast Indian?" Ah no he is not.So for the majority of the public thecharacter went right over their heads. This I believed is the source ofthe controversy that was stirred up when it was released. Is this aparody of East Indian culture? No it is not. On to my next point.2)This movie due to its subject matter,a parody of pseudopsychology/mysticism that was so the rage in the early 90s.Unfortunately those who were into this pop phenomenon took it all toseriously.This is the problem , those who would "get" most of the jokeswould not go to see this movie. With their politically correctspiritually righteous mentality,this movie might come across as anaffront to their belief systems.
I was into some of the new age stuff in the day but never took it soserious as to let it erode my sense of humor. But in some ways unlessyou were into this scene a lot of the humor comes across as an bunch of"inside jokes" only some might get. You couldn't swing a dead cat insay 1995 without hitting some up and coming self help guru hawkingtheir latest book. This is where the humor truly lies in this movie.The Love Guru stands up not only as a great parody of time past butalso as a social satire with its roots in the last decade.
Of course it is a very typical Mike Myers as it has its fair share ofgoofy slapstick gags and crude humor. Their are some fantastic oneliners that actually noticed only on subsequent viewings. I found Myersplayed the character with warmth and genuine love for the material.This often put over a lot of the more lame jokes as there certainly aremore than a few. But hey isn't that what a Mike myers movie is supposedto be ? Jokes so inanely silly that that is what makes them roar outloud funny.Come on now Austin Powers,Shrek and Waynes World were thesame style. Yet amazingly enough so many reviewers state that is whatruined this movie.Personally I love a comedy that uses the a joke sobad its funny approach,truly this being for me the charm of Mike Myerspast efforts.
I am not sure what people expected. I personally wish it would havedone better in the box office as I would love to see sequels. Hey maybeGuru Pitka can "co-star" with Austin Powers(you know help him get hismojo back)as the character is one of the finest Myers has created.Ibelieve the character should get more mileage. But I think the nuancesof Guru Pitka went over the average movie goers heads. This is sad asit doesn't reflect on the quality of the movie but more so on how farthe average movie goers sense of humor has slipped.
I am thinking that had this movie been released ten years ago in 1998it would have been a huge hit and critically praised. This movie's onlycrime being it is a bit behind the times topically speaking. I trulybelieve in the future this movie will be lauded as a unrecognizedclassic. Hey Deepak loved the movie and thought it was veryentertaining.As for the majority of bad reviewers who stated this moviewas nothing more than a string of penis jokes,I have to wonder if theyeven watched the same movie.Yes, granted there is the fair share ofcrude humor ,what comedy doesn't go that route these days. Like Jackassis high concept.
Justinb Timberlake as a french Canadian hockey player in love withCeline Dion was bust a gut hilarious. I think he should give up singingand concentrate on being a comedic actor,he was that good. Myers pullsout every type of joke from "potty humor" to the Vaudvillian style"take my wife please" variety. All in all this movie is near perfectgoofy comedy and absolutely does not deserve the almost universal beatdown it has received. I have bought this movie and probably seen it now10 times and will probably enjoy 10 more.
Loved it!!! One of the best movie I have ever seen. Comedy!!! I lovedit! If I could rate my favorite movies in order it would be easy~ but Ihave seen a lot of movies so it got into my favorite 5! Itautomatically drew my attention with hysterical laughter! It drew myattention the first second it started! I liked it a lot! It drew myattention! I loved it. I could watch it a million times and neverforget the feeling I had when I first watched it! it is a great movie!I can't believe some people don't like it
! It's amazing to me howmuch fun it is to watch! ~~~~~~ I have fun even watching it.
I would do: Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Hotel for Dogs, then The Love Guru
The only way the movie could have gotten worse is if they got rid ofcolbert and gave a bigger part to Verne troyer. This is a perfectexample of people who need EDITORS. There was definitely not anyonewith talent reading this crap before it was being filmed. The wholemovie is a rip off of austin powers anyway. Mike Myers really needed totry something new, instead he took all his jokes that were popular fromother films he's made (which we've all seen too many times anyway) andput them in this movie along with a lot of idiotic crap. I am a mikemyers fan but I think he needs to stop with the spoof, stupid comedymovies and move onto something new.
I'm glad I wasn't in the UK's Celebrity Big Brother House this year.Not because I wouldn't have enjoyed meeting some of the others, butbecause at one stage fellow house mate Verne Troyer might have asked meabout the last film he did with his best friend, and I wouldn't becomfortable lying to him and denying that I thought The Love Guru was acinematic mutant mistakenly allowed to live and breathe rather than beput to a merciful sleep in the development stage.
Hey, I like Mike Myers. He has a measure of talent and charisma andlikability, and I applaud his deserved financial and critical successwith the Wayne's World and Austin Powers films (though he went onemovie too far with Goldmember). Having said that, Myers, like hisfellow SNL alumnus Will Ferrell, is like a kid wandering about a shopeating food off the shelves and generally behaving like someone indesperate need of supervision and guidance. Let's be honest, Ferrell'slast decent leading role was in Anchorman (2004), and while he's beenfine in supporting work like The Producers (2005), everything else thathe's had a hand in has been a series of embarrassments of varyinglevels. And sadly, Myers can too easily fall into the same degree ofarrested development.
People who know me know that I may go on about a lot of bad movies, butmore often than not, I enjoyed watching them, and perversely can watchthem again. This one, however, I'm ashamed that I ever wasted bandwidthgetting it, let alone consider watching it again.
Myers' characters have always been one-note, with a limited appeal. Buthis latest Guru Pitka went too far when he thought of writing it down;in comparison, his Beatnik poet Charlie from So I Married An AxeMurderer (1993) was a character of multi-layered nuance, and moreimportantly, one that people would much rather watch. The very conceptshould have been seen as potentially execrable and insulting to Hindus.Yes, I know he tries to get around this in the movie by claiming thatPitka wasn't really a Hindu, but an American raised by Hindus, but likeso much else in this movie, that attempt fails miserably given whatpasses for humor.
Hey, I like Dumb Humor – when it's done right. Dodgeball, Epic Movie,Jay and Silent Bob. But the gags in The Love Guru come in threeflavors: racist, gross and infantile, and in various mixtures thereof.The racist names he came up with (Harenmahkeester, Satchabigknoba) isthe sort of thing an ignorant ten-year-old kid would come up with tomake the other ignorant ten-year-old kids in the playground laugh. Yes,isn't it hilarious that Indian people all have big long names? The restof the atrocity is filled with other dodgy names like Coach Cherkov andDick Pants, as well as alleged jokes about snot balls and nose hairs,humping elephants, food prepared to look like genitals, and buckets ofurine – all of which probably would have sounded funny in 1988 in thewriters' brainstorming sessions in the SNL offices at 3am when you'redoped up on caffeine, but I honestly can't believe that a 45-year-oldman wrote this crap down in 2008 and thought this would be funny in anyother circumstances.
And the execution of these so-called gags is almost consistentlyaccompanied by Myers with the same sort of mugging grin to the camerathat he perfected with Wayne Campbell and Austin Powers – thedifference here being that those other characters had moments wherethey really were humorous, but seeing Myers try it with Pitka is akinto watching an inept magician fail every trick, but still take arehearsed bow after each one, oblivious to the negative reaction he'sgetting from his audience. And worse, he drives the jokes so deep intothe ground, again and again, you expect them to bump into Hilary Swankpiloting her subterranean machine around the Earth's Core.
And the storyline carrying these non-gags, like the sores on the backof a leper, is just as awful: a guru seeking fame and a spot on Oprahcounsels a Canadian hockey player who wants to win back his wife from arival, Jacques "Le Coq" Grande, who apparently is well-endowed (Get it?Le Coq Grande?). Another lesson to learn, Mike: Sports Themes Aren'tFunny. Canadian Sports Themes Aren't Funny, Cubed. It may give you thechance to hang about with your heroes, but it's a waste of time for therest of us. Some have tried to point out the satire in Pitka'sself-help philosophies, but satire only works when it makes a point,and doesn't just appear indistinguishable from the targets it'sallegedly satirizing.
In case I haven't made it clear, this is a Bad Film. Not So Bad It'sGood, like The Oxford Murders (2008). This is embarrassing on levels Ihaven't seen in ages. Some bad movies have people in it who can riseabove the mediocrity, but this one is like quicksand, sucking peopledown and suffocating them. And I'm not talking about the likes of VerneTroyer, Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake, who were basicallyemployees who probably needed the money, or the cameos from Oprah andVal Kilmer. I'm talking about Ben F**king Kingsley.
How does a respected Oscar winner go from playing Gandhi to playingGuru Tugginmypudha?
THE LOVE GURU: another excuse for Mike Myers to act unutterably stupid- and get paid for it.
As the Guru Pitka, the usually brilliant Myers is in mediocre form,playing an Indian guru who is hired by Jane (talentless Jessica Alba)to help a recently-separated hockey player, Darren (Romany Malco, THE40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN), find "balance" (i.e. get his game back on) afterhis wife leaves him for star player, Jacques "Le Coq" Grande (JustinTimberlake).
Though Myers flounders with that wavering Indian accent and jokes thatrequire him to laugh at them himself, and though Alba is still gettingby on the smoothness of her ta-tas rather than acting ability, everyoneelse is in fine form, especially – surprisingly – Justin Timberlake.
He's fey, French, and fantastique in this broad comedic role that suitshis style more than the unmanageable drama of BLACK SNAKE MOAN. Hissix-pack tatt speaks for him: The Man, The Legend; one arrow points up,one points down.
Nice to see Verne Troyer (you know, Mini-Me) in an actual speaking role- an asshole, no less – as the domineering, loudmouth hockey coach.
Ben Kingsley reprises his Gandhi, albeit Gandhi for Imbeciles and, ofcourse, nails that Indian accent.
Balance is almost restored – until everyone discovers Guru Pitka took ashortcut in "curing" Darren. And we kinda laugh at him laughing at hisown jokes all the way to the Bollywood ending.
The one real laugh is when Pitka is surfing radio stations and – in anod to WAYNE'S WORLD – flips past Bohemian Rhapsody and does acamera-take.
In the words of Freddie: "Ooooh bay-beh / Can't do this to me, bay-beh/ Just gotta get out / Just gotta get right out of here."
–Review by Poffy The Cucumber (for Poffy's Movie Mania).
This is offensively lazy material for any comedian worth his salt to besitting on for six years (the last time he introduced characters he'dwritten himself: Goldmember.) Continuously repeating jokes aboutpeople's names is not funny, and it's being incredibly gracious toallow that it EVER was. What saddens me most is the reek of missedopportunity – lampooning new-age spirituality has seemingly endlesscomic potential, and yet nothing but the absolute bare bones are minedhere. There's little attempt to work the gags into any sort ofstructure; they're just tossed away, and most of them can be heard todrop with a resounding thud.
The same ramshackle approach applies to the main character, too; thereappears to be little consistency or definable personality about Pitka,the one constant being that he dresses weird and has a beard… (Thatrhyme is so lame I confess a slight sense of surprise that Myers didn'tadd that into the mix, too… )
On this evidence, maybe Myers is doing the right thing by hawkinghimself out for other people's scripts with his forthcoming efforts. Itappears any ingenuity or inspiration he once possessed was sapped awaylong ago…
I like to think of myself as a person who has an intelligent sense ofwhat comedy is and dosn't laugh at stupid clichés and juvenile jokes
but I like to laugh and this movie mad me laugh a lot
coupled with some very good performances from people like StephenColbert and john oliver i loved this movie
i also thought the plot line was quite good not the thickest butinteresting
I can see why some people may not like it but I thought it was funnierthan Austin Powers and quite a lot of other silly comedies
I have to say if you have a good sense of humour you will like thismovie