The Love Guru

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Opening in theatres this Friday is one funny comedy by Graham Gordy and  Mike Meyers with “The Love Guru”.

This is the story of Pitka, an American boy raised in an ashram in India by Guru Tugginmypudha (Ben Kingsley). Returning to the states with his sidekick Rajneesh (Manu Narayan), Pitka becomes the number two self-help Guru of love in the world.

Needing help in the love department is Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco), a hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Roanoke has played terribly since wife Prudence (Meagan Good) left him for Jacques “Le Coc” Grande (Justin Timberlake), a rival player.

Knowing her team needs Roanoke to win the Stanley Cup and break the family curse is Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba), owner and believer in Guru Pitka. A non-believer is Coach Punch Cherkov (Vern Troyer) who may be small in stature but big in mouth when it comes to saying what he thinks, especially in regards to Guru Pitka.

But Guru Pitka also faces his own feelings for Jane and in an attempt to get his lifelong dream of becoming number one Guru, he jeopardizes Roanoke, the Leafs, the Stanley Cup and his friendship with Rajneesh.

FINAL WORD: Mike Meyers has outdone himself. In his role as of Pitka, his first original since Austin Powers, there isn’t anything off limits or twisted around. In his portrayal of Pitka, Meyers looks to be having a grand time with costumes and his elephant.

Jessica Alba is adorable but to be honest this role isn’t a huge acting stretch but neither is Malco as Roanoke. He has his humorous moments but plays the straight man here.

Justin Timberlake is absolutely hysterical as Jacque “le Coc” Grande. He dares to put himself out there, literally, and make us all laugh. His ode to Celine Dion is just plain funny.

Vern Troy as the coach is a large presence in a small role. He wise cracking voice is finally heard after such a long silence as “Mini-Me” of Austin Powers’s fame.

I can tell you right now that everyone is going to either love this film or hate it, there is no in between. One side of the coin will scream “Austin Powers” potty humor mixed with Benny Hill- blah-blah-blah while the other side will be insane with laughter and take life a lot less seriously.

This is Meyers’ trademark humor making fun of everything possible including himself and we could all use a little more of that these days. He has a dedicated group of fans that expect nothing less than his best and they might get it!

Cameos include Mike Meyers, Kanye West, Deepak Chopra, Rob Blake, Mariska Hargitay, and Jessica Simpson.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give “The Love Guru” four tubs of popcorn out of five. I had a good time. There are very few moments when there isn’t something to laugh about. One thing for sure, I am going to have to see it again to find out all the dialogue I missed!

The film is absolutely adult based filled with innuendos and the teens are going to be in line to see it as well, definitely not for smaller children.

Coming in at only 88 minutes the laughs bombard! Get ready for the summer of love provided by Guru Pitka because his karma is huge!