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PARAMOUNT

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Marco Schnabel
Cast:
Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake
Writing Credits:
Mike Myers, Graham Gordy

Synopsis:
Guru Pitka attempts to develop an audience as a self-help leader.

Box Office:
Budget
$62 million.
Opening Weekend
$13,907,130 on 3012 screens.
Domestic Gross
$32,235,793.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio:
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Spanish Dolby 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese

Runtime: 86 min.
Price: $9.98
Release Date: 9/16/2008

Bonus:
• “A Look Inside” Featurette
• “One Hellava Elephant” Featurette
• “Hockey Training for Actors” Featurette
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Bloopers
• “Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay”
• “Outtakes & More”
• Trailer


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
-LG OLED65C6P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV
-Marantz SR7010 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Surround Receiver
-Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


The Love Guru [Blu-Ray] (2008)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 19, 2008)

After 2003’s The Cat in the Hat flopped, Mike Myers maintained a low profile, at least as a live-action performer for five years. He showed up as the lead voice in the second and third Shrek flicks, but his only live-action appearance came via a glorified cameo in another bomb, 2004’s View from the Top.

This made 2008’s The Love Guru a comeback vehicle for Myers, one that didn’t succeed. Guru sputtered at the box office, and as of October 2020, Myers has yet to play the lead in another live-action flick since 2008.

Self-help master Guru Pitka (Myers) gets called in to help hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco). The Toronto Maple Leafs’ star gets the shakes when his marriage goes on the rocks after his wife Prudence (Meagan Good) does the nasty with rival goalie Jacques “Le Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake).

Leafs owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) offers Pitka two million dollars to fix Roanoke’s marriage and help the team win the Stanley Cup. Pitka also sees this as a way to get onto Oprah and top Deepak Chopra as the number one self-help dude. The film follows his work with Roanoke as well as his attempts to romance sexy Jane.

Did Guru deserve its negative notices and poor box office receipts? Yup. While I wouldn’t refer to Guru as the worst film ever made, it certainly comes as an unfunny disappointment.

In prior films, Myers was unafraid to embrace lowbrow humor, but there was some element of self-mocking cleverness to it. None of that occurs via the relentless parade of toilet gags found in Guru.

Here it appears Myers has never met a joke too cheap or crass, so we find a constant stream of bits related to male genitalia and various bodily functions. We can see each of these coming a mile in advance, and not a single one seems witty or bright.

Guru also throws out pun after pun. I once dated a woman who thought that puns were the lowest form of humor. I don’t agree – the toilet gags mentioned in the prior paragraph are as bad as it gets – but puns can flop, especially when they don’t demonstrate much intelligence.

The puns of Guru follow the same crass approach seen in most of its other jokes, and they rarely make much sense. They simply add to the film’s witlessness.

To make things worse, the film shows such a dearth of creativity that it repeats the same gags ad infinitum. For instance, Pitka greets all his adherents with “Mariska Hargitay”.

That bit isn’t particularly funny the first time, and it becomes painful the 50th. Guru regurgitates too many of its bits over and over, a factor that makes it tedious as well as painful.

Guru relies on a slew of cameos for cheap laughs – though these never prompt humor – and Myers overacts relentlessly. That’s always been a weakness of his, as Myers loves to mug for the camera.

Myers goes more over the top than usual here, however. Perhaps he recognized the feeble nature of the material and tried to provoke some chuckles from the dismal jokes, but his performance makes things worse.

The only consolation I take from Guru is that its box office failure means we’ll never have to see the Pitka character again. Myers wanted to launch another franchise but moviegoers firmly rejected Guru. Good for them!


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B/ Bonus C+

The Love Guru appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a pretty solid presentation.

Sharpness appeared fairly strong. Only a smidgen of softness impacted the occasional wide shot, as the majority of the flick seemed well-defined and concise.

Moiré effects and jagged edges presented no concerns, and I saw no edge haloes. No print flaws materialized, so the film remained clean and fresh.

In terms of colors, the flick went with a fairly amber tint, along with some teal. Within those parameters, the tones looked fine, and a few brighter hues impressed.

Blacks were dark and firm, while shadows appeared clear and well-developed. The image fared nicely.

As for the film’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack, it offered a functional effort and that was all. Of course, I didn’t expect a dazzling soundfield from this sort of comedy, and I got exactly what I anticipated.

Surround usage stayed limited most of the time. A few “action” scenes – usually on the hockey rink - opened things up in a minor way, but the rear speakers really had little to do here.

In those forward channels, the music provided nice stereo separation and opened up the mix reasonably well. There wasn’t a whole lot of activity or movement, but they conveyed a passable sense of space and place. The track functioned appropriately for the story.

Audio quality appeared fine. Dialogue was consistently warm and natural, and speech displayed no concerns related to edginess or intelligibility. Effects were a minor component of the mix, and they seemed appropriately subdued and accurate.

The music came across as acceptably distinctive. This was a standard “comedy mix” and became a decent reproduction of the material.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the DVD version? Even though the BD came with a lossless mix, it didn’t show much improvement. Some of that occurred because the BD was mastered at a strangely low level, and that made it seem less than impactful.

Visuals marked a nice improvement, though, as the BD boasted superior delineation, colors and blacks. While the audio was a wash, the superior picture quality made the BD a solid upgrade.

When we move to the extras, we begin with a few featurettes. Mike Myers and The Love Guru: A Look Inside goes for nine minutes, 35 seconds and brings notes from director Marco Schabel and actors Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Verne Troyer, and Mariska Hargitay.

We learn about the origins and development of the Guru Pitka character, Myers’ approach to comedy and his work on the set, cast and performances, cameos, and some scene specifics.

A few decent notes appear here – mostly about the character’s roots – but the featurette usually remains fluffy. There’s a definite promotional tone at work here, so don’t expect much real info. Oh, and don’t watch it before you check out the movie, as it ruins some potential surprises.

A look at the movie’s practical effects arrives with the five-minute, 44-second One Hellava Elephant. It features Stefaniuk FX Studios’ Ron Stefaniuk and puppeteer Frank Meschkuliet.

They tell us about the elephant animatronic created for Myers to ride as well as a fake ostrich used in one scene. They give us a good nuts and bolts look at their work.

Hockey Training for Actors lasts eight minutes, three seconds and provides notes from Myers, 2nd unit director/hockey coordinator Mark Ellis, actor Romany Malco, and hockey players Bob Probert and Jim Thomson. We learn a little about getting the actors in shape to perform the hockey scenes.

Though a smattering of interesting remarks pop up – particularly about Malco – the show mostly wants to convince us how good the hockey action looks. It’s another fairly insubstantial piece.

11 Deleted and Extended Scenes fill a total of 13 minutes, 46 seconds. Most of the clips offer basic gags, but a minor omitted subplot emerges when we learn about a competing Eastern philosophy. Nothing entertaining appears here, though a reference to Kanye West’s Katrina telethon controversy almost amuses.

Next we find three minutes, 48 seconds of Bloopers. With Myers on the set, I hoped these would be more clever than the usual goofs and giggles. A few minor fun bits emerge, but the set is usually just the standard blooper fare.

More cut footage arrives via Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay. The five-minute, eight-second reel shows cut game commentary from the Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan. I didn’t think it was funny, but if you liked the movie, you’ll probably enjoy it.

In addition to the film’s trailer we get the 10-minute, 14-second Outtakes and More. Here we locate some brief deleted snippets and alternate takes on bits that made the final movie. Again, nothing here makes me laugh, but it’s a nice addition for fans.

Mike Myers’ comeback will have to wait for another day, as The Love Guru turned into a major flop. And a deserved flop at that, as the flick was witless and idiotic. The Blu-ray provides solid picture and decent audio along with a few moderately interesting extras. Not a laugh can be found in this tedious dud.

To rate this film, visit the original review of THE LOVE GURU