Jump to content

The Love Guru

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Garrett247 (talk | contribs) at 02:53, 21 March 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Love Guru
Promotional poster
Directed byMarco Schnabel
Written byMike Myers
Graham Gordy
Produced byMike Myers
Gary Barber
StarringMike Myers
Jessica Alba
Romany Malco
CinematographyPeter Deming
Edited byBilly Weber
Music byGeorge S. Clinton
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Spyglass Pictures
Release dates
June 20, 2008
Running time
88 minutes
Countries United States
Canada Canada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$62,000,000[1]

The Love Guru is a 2008 American comedy film, directed by Marco Schnabel and starring Mike Myers and Jessica Alba along with Romany Malco and Justin Timberlake. In addition to starring in the film, Myers wrote The Love Guru with Graham Gordy which was based on real life love guru Matt Etzel, and produced it with Gary Barber. The film was released by Paramount Pictures on June 20, 2008 and was rated PG-13. The film was released on August 1 in the United Kingdom, and has been rated 12A. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 16.

Plot

Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco), the star player of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is suffering from stress because his wife, Prudence Roanoke (Meagan Good), has left him for Jacques "Le Coq" Grandé (Justin Timberlake), whose nickname is apparently a nod to being exceedingly (not to mention unrealistically) well-endowed. The stress causes his hand to shake, which affects his hockey performance. Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) enlists the support of Guru Maurice Pitka (Mike Myers) to help Darren with his stress so that the team can hopefully break their losing streak. In addition to getting a considerable payment, Pitka would be invited to Oprah Winfrey's show, which he hopes would help him become the #1 guru, a place currently held by Deepak Chopra. Pitka succeeds, but feels no need anymore to become #1, more important is his love for Bullard. However, in connection with a vow Guru Tugginmypudha gave him a chastity belt. He returns to him to have it removed. Tugginmypudha agrees that it can be removed now, and explains how to do that; to Pitka's surprise no key is needed.

Cast

As themselves

Music

The original score for the film was composed by George S. Clinton, who recorded it with an 80-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at Warner Bros.[2]

The song "Dhadak Dhadak" from the 2005 Bollywood film Bunty Aur Babli was used in the trailer.

The songs "9 to 5", "More Than Words", and "The Joker" are all in the movie (performed by Mike Myers, and with sitar accompaniment) and on the soundtrack. "Brimful of Asha" was also used in the film.

Promotion

Mike Myers appeared in the seventh season finale of American Idol as his character Pitka, the "spiritual director" of that show. The finalists David Cook and David Archuleta got to visit the Paramount Pictures studio theatre to see The Love Guru a month before its release and then got to meet Myers dressed like Pitka and was playing Sitar Hero.

A "Fan Resource Page" at Fox Entertainment's beliefnet.com website[3] was "created as part of a collaboration between Beliefnet and Paramount Pictures."[4]

Box office performance

In its opening weekend, The Love Guru grossed $13.9 million in 3,012 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #4 at the box office.[1] The opening week numbers fell short of the $20 million range forecast by Hollywood pundits.[5] To date, the film has grossed $32,190,314 in the United States and Canada.[1]

Critical reception

The Love Guru was panned by most critics. As of August 5, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 14% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 125 reviews.[6] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 24 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.[7]

Jay Stone of the National Post gave the film one star and said the film "is shockingly crass, sloppy, repetitive and thin." Stone said "Chopra is used almost as a product placement, taking a proud spot alongside a circus, a brand of cinnamon buns, the Leafs and, of course, Mike Myers." Stone also wrote, "the sitar-based versions of pop songs like 9 to 5 are oddly watchable - but mostly the film is 88 minutes of ridiculous sight gags and obscene puns."[8]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote "The word 'unfunny' surely applies to Mr. Myers’s obnoxious attempts to find mirth in physical and cultural differences but does not quite capture the strenuous unpleasantness of his performance. No, The Love Guru is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again."[9] Scott also commented that the cameo appearance of actress Mariska Hargitay was anti-climactic. An ongoing gag in the film is the use of "Mariska Hargitay" as a phoney hindi greeting.[9]

Harry Knowles of Aintitcoolnews.com was utterly disgusted with the film, considering it one of the worst films of at least the past several years, and going so far as to declare it a career-killing movie for Myers. [10]

The Globe and Mail gave the movie a 1-star review, saying the only funny part was the line "the Toronto Maple Leafs have won the Stanley Cup!", due to the recent lack of skills displayed by the team. One reviewer felt that the only actor that "really scores in the film is Stephen Colbert," who plays a drug- and sex-addicted hockey broadcaster, lauding his performance as "absolutely hysterical."

Portrayal of Hinduism

Before the film's release, some Hindus expressed unhappiness about how Hindus are portrayed, the disrespect of their culture and the bad impression that it would make for those not well exposed to Hinduism, while some gave a cautious welcome, asking other Hindus to look at it as satire and not the truth.[11] Rajan Zed, a Hindu leader from Nevada, demanded that Paramount Pictures screen the film for members of the Hindu community before it was released in June. Based on the movie's trailer and MySpace page, Zed says The Love Guru "appears to be lampooning Hinduism and Hindus" and uses sacred terms frivolously. Zed told The Associated Press, "People are not very well-versed in Hinduism, so this might be their only exposure...They will have an image in their minds of stereotypes. They will think most of us are like that."[12]

The Hindu American Foundation was granted a pre-screening of the film prior to its release. HAF agreed to view the film to be able to inform the Hindu American community in light of concerned enquiries that have been pouring into its national headquarters. The reviewers conclude that the film is vulgar and crude but not necessarily anti-Hindu.[1]

Trivia

  • The two teams in the film, the Los Angeles Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs met each other in the playoffs once in real life. In 1993, these two teams met in the Campbell Conference Championship. The Kings won that series 4 games to 3 to advance to their first and (as of 2008) only Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens.
  • In one scene where Myers and Malco are disputing the type of radio station to be played while driving, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is switched to for a moment. During this, Myers looks at the camera and quickly switches the station. This alludes to the car scene in another Myers film, Wayne's World.
  • This is the second film in which both Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake work together, the first being Shrek the Third.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs coach Punch Cherkov (played by Verne Troyer) appears to be named after famous Leaf coach George "Punch" Imlach.
  • In the movie, the Leafs win the final series in 7 games after losing the first 3. In the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals the Leafs accomplished this feat and to date they are the only team to ever win the Stanley Cup after falling behind 0-3.

References

  1. ^ a b c The Love Guru at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ Dan Goldwasser (2008-05-24). "George S. Clinton scores Mike Myers' The Love Guru". ScoringSessions.com. Retrieved 2008-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ The Love Guru on Beliefnet
  4. ^ Disclaimer about contents of The Love Guru Fan Resource Page from Beliefnet
  5. ^ "'Smart' Moviegoers Give 'Guru' No Love". America Online. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  6. ^ "The Love Guru Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  7. ^ "Love Guru, The (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  8. ^ Jay Stone (2008-06-19). "Love Guru is inoffensive to all except fans of comedy". National Post. Retrieved 2008-06-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b A.O. Scott (2008-06-20). "Just Say 'Mariska Hargitay' and Snicker". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Harry Knowles (2008-06-19). "Harry says, 'If Shit Got THE LOVE GURU On It, Shit Would Wipe It Off!'". Aintitcoolnews.com. Retrieved 2008-07-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Anuttama Dasa, ISKCON Minister of Communications. "[[ISKCON]] North America's Official Statement on The Love Guru". www.dandavats.com. Retrieved 2008-06-21. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  12. ^ Sandy Cohen, The Associated Press, "Myers' latest spoof hits ohm"
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=The_Love_Guru&oldid=419909022"