Cynical Cinema

When The Love Guru hit theatres the same week as Get Smart, I had a bet with my colleagues about which movie would be bigger. Both opening week and in the long run. I picked Get Smart. They picked the Love Guru. I think there is something about Canadians that wishes success upon Mike Myers even when that success is neither earned nor deserved. Mike Myers has done five movies. Ever. So I Married An Axe Murderer, Wayne’s World, Shrek, Austin Powers, and 54. Then he made thirty-one sequels, either bona-fide sequels or ripoffs of his previous work. The Love Guru falls into the latter category, and it gets released on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow, September 16th, from Paramount Home Entertainment. And it’s dreadful.

It actually makes me cringe to write the following words: The best thing in this movie is Justin Timberlake. Ugh. I feel like showering now. But it’s actually true. He is reasonably entertaining as a French Canadian hockey goalie who is a whiz with the ladies. His overblown French accent and his idiotic love for Celine Dion are worth a smirk or two. But Mike Myers, as the Indian guru Pitka, is doing the same role he has always done. Basically, he figures that putting on an accent (in this case an Indian one) is funny enough to carry a movie. He then figures that Verne Troyer simply being a tiny guy is funny. And that having an elephant walk around is funny. Or that two elephants having sex with each other is funny. In this movie, none of these things are funny. They are obnoxious.

Jessica Alba, once again, plays the hot woman. Just showing up is enough for her, because she is hot. Just like showing up is enough for Verne Troyer, because he is short. And for Mike Myers as well, because he has an accent. Get it? This really is one of the worst movies of the year, with almost no laughs and definitely no charm. Skip The Love Guru. And wait until Mike Myers makes his sixth movie. Oh, by the way - I won the bet. By a large margin. The Love Guru cost 62 million dollars and made 32 million. Opening weekend, 13 million. Get Smart opened with a 39 million dollar weekend, and has made 129 million dollars so far. With a production budget of 80 million dollars. Case closed.

John Oliver has been just about the best contributor to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show for the last couple of years. With his British accent his words certainly (as he himself says) come with more authority than usual. And his bit last week on Alpaca Farming was sheer genius. John Oliver: Terrifying Times is an hour-long stand-up show from New York City featuring Oliver at his funniest. Well, for thirty minutes anyway. He tends to lose steam toward the end of the show.

Oliver’s first half, though, is brilliant. He talks about the Americans as the next racer in the world-domination relay race that is the world. The British handed the baton to America, and it will soon be America’s turn to hand it to China, who are the anchor leg as the world races toward Armageddon. It’s an absolutely hilarious take on the world and the politics that define it. He brings on Andy Zaltzman, a “scientist”, who does some brilliantly funny work connecting the dots between teen pregnancy and the invasion of foreign countries.

Toward the end, the show slows down, as Oliver begins to talk more about himself and his childhood. This is not his strength. But the first half hour or forty minutes make this DVD very much worthwhile, and the special features are solid. Clips of Oliver’s appearances on The Daily Show, and some more interviews with the hilarious Andy Zaltzman. John Oliver: Terrifying Times comes out Tuesday, August 19th, from Paramount Home Entertainment.