On Friday, Mike Meyers’ new character, the Guru Pitka, hits theaters in the comedy “The Love Guru”. Although a fun-loving, comical character, the Guru Pitka closely resembled Mike Meyers’ past character, Austin Powers.
The film is about an American man raised in India by Gurus, such as Guru Tugginmypuddha, becoming a world-famous love guru. Yet, he is rated No. 2 next to Deepak because his holiness Pitka has not yet appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”.
His Holiness Pitka is offered a spot on “Oprah” if he can fix the marriage between Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) and his wife Prudence (Megan Good) before the Stanley Cup, or as his holiness says, “Stanley’s Cup”.
The Maple Leafs play for the Stanley Cup against the Los Angeles Kings, whose goalie, Joque “Le Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake), is the man responsible for the broken marriage between Roanoke and his wife.
Along the way, the guru Pitka finds himself head-over-heels for the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba), who is also having love troubles of her own – every man in town seems to refuse dating her until the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.
Though the film was entertaining throughout, it was as if it belonged in the same series as “Austin Powers.” Such things as the manner in which Meyers laughed after telling jokes, the types of jokes he told and the play on words with character names were clues to make the audience perhaps feel as though they were watching the international spy all over again.
Furthermore, the inclusion of Verne Troyer as Coach Cherkov shows another resemblance to the “Austin Powers” series, where Troyer plays Dr. Evil’s Mini Me.
The character of the Guru Pitka is also very close to that of Austin Powers because people all over the world know who he is. Stars such as Jessica Simpson, Val Kilmer and Mariska Hargitay even come to see him.
Hargitay’s name was even used as a peace greeting throughout the movie.
There was a lot to work with, having such a promising cast, but the highly hilarious performance expected was not delivered. The funniest two parts of the movie arrived at the end of the movie and during the closing credits.
There was one jaw-dropping scene in the movie where two elephants definitely needed to get a room, as they are a distraction during the final game of the series to win the Stanley Cup.
The movie is absolutely one for older crowds. The play on words would not be deciphered by a younger group. Although the expected performance was not delivered, the movie is still worth going to see. With Mike Meyers, there is never a dull moment.
Rating: PG-13Running Time: 1 hr. 27 min.Playing at: Columbus Area theaters
Nicole Schmidt can be reached at [email protected].
