To clarify, the reviewer didn't find the movie funny, but his explanation is a hoot. (I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know if any of this is "fair.")
From the New York Times, concerning "The Love Guru."
"To say that the movie is not funny is merely to affirm the obvious. 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.
"And this is, come to think of it, something of an achievement. What is the opposite of a belly laugh? An interesting question, in a way, and to hear lines like “I think I just made a happy wee-wee” or “I’m making diarrhea noises in my cup” or to watch apprentice gurus attack one another with urine-soaked mops is to grasp the answer. Please don’t misunderstand: I’m not opposed to infantile, regressive, scatological humor. Indeed, I consider myself something of a connoisseur. Or maybe a glutton. So it’s not that I object to the idea of, say, witnessing elephants copulate on the ice in the middle of a Stanley Cup hockey match, or seeing a dwarf sent flying over the same ice by the shock of defibrillator paddles. But it will never be enough simply to do such things. They must be done well."
Dorothy Parker would be proud.
A funny movie review
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silvercamaro
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etaoin22
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Nice writing. Kudos also to the editors, if they are allowing the writers to write.
Poor Myers. This concept must have seemed every bit as promising as Austin Powers was, a decade ago.
But, after all, at least half a dozen dying thespians are reputed to have said as their last three words....
"Comedy is hard".
Poor Myers. This concept must have seemed every bit as promising as Austin Powers was, a decade ago.
But, after all, at least half a dozen dying thespians are reputed to have said as their last three words....
"Comedy is hard".
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Bob Juch
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It's rated PG-13. I don't recommend it to anyone over 13.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.
Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to drive in New Jersey.
- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.
Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to drive in New Jersey.
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PlacentiaSoccerMom
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themanintheseersuckersuit
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This fellow was more blunt
Spoiler
Unfuckingbelievably unspeakably awful. THE LOVE GURU is astonishingly rancid. There's a part of me, that wants THE LOVE GURU to make like 75 Million opening weekend. Why? So that the entire - giant film going audience marks Mike Myers' death as a comedian.
Reviews of this film are nearly universally grotesquely negative - and with good reason. With this film, Myers puts a shotgun in the mouth of comedy and kills it. This isn't merely a bad film, but a painful experience that you keep telling yourself to leave. However, I have a very strong belief in witnessing the terror. People had to survive the Holocaust to hold those responsible, responsible. This film isn't as bad as the Holocaust. Nothing could be. But in the realm of film going experiences - it's a third trimester abortion. It is a pregnant woman smoking a cigarette and drinking a Coors Light.
Myers not only tells alleged attempts at jokes - but often time spends minutes of screen time attempting to explain why the joke is funny... He's like that Comedy School guy that tries to teach BORAT comedy... but with no BORAT in the room.
I saw THE HAPPENING - it was the film before this that I saw in theaters. It's getting a lot of shit - and make no bones about it, THE HAPPENING is a very bad film. But at least it had a premise - at least it was momentarily compelling in places. This was a painful film experience. Imagine injecting hydrochloric acid into your left teste... or right breast. Imagine following that up with injections throughout your body.
THE LOVE GURU is one of the most inept pathetic terrifyingly awful experiences I've ever suffered through.
As the audience walked out - they all had that 100 yard stare. We'd all seen shit that makes shit seem HELLO KITTY cuddily. I know someone I highly respect that apparently liked and enjoyed this film. I don't think ill of him. I am just completely and utterly at a loss. I can't imagine an instance or moment that one could grasp ahold of and not want to choke to an early grave.
Seriously - the only enjoyment I can imagine with this film - is watching your fellow audience members - and ponder their faces as they witness this atrocity. OR - like in my theater - there were 4 ladies sitting to my left that actually laughed throughout the film. They were literally alone. They were middle-aged and seemingly lucid. I can not account for their reactions.
BEWARE - SEE AT YOUR OWN RISK
Reviews of this film are nearly universally grotesquely negative - and with good reason. With this film, Myers puts a shotgun in the mouth of comedy and kills it. This isn't merely a bad film, but a painful experience that you keep telling yourself to leave. However, I have a very strong belief in witnessing the terror. People had to survive the Holocaust to hold those responsible, responsible. This film isn't as bad as the Holocaust. Nothing could be. But in the realm of film going experiences - it's a third trimester abortion. It is a pregnant woman smoking a cigarette and drinking a Coors Light.
Myers not only tells alleged attempts at jokes - but often time spends minutes of screen time attempting to explain why the joke is funny... He's like that Comedy School guy that tries to teach BORAT comedy... but with no BORAT in the room.
I saw THE HAPPENING - it was the film before this that I saw in theaters. It's getting a lot of shit - and make no bones about it, THE HAPPENING is a very bad film. But at least it had a premise - at least it was momentarily compelling in places. This was a painful film experience. Imagine injecting hydrochloric acid into your left teste... or right breast. Imagine following that up with injections throughout your body.
THE LOVE GURU is one of the most inept pathetic terrifyingly awful experiences I've ever suffered through.
As the audience walked out - they all had that 100 yard stare. We'd all seen shit that makes shit seem HELLO KITTY cuddily. I know someone I highly respect that apparently liked and enjoyed this film. I don't think ill of him. I am just completely and utterly at a loss. I can't imagine an instance or moment that one could grasp ahold of and not want to choke to an early grave.
Seriously - the only enjoyment I can imagine with this film - is watching your fellow audience members - and ponder their faces as they witness this atrocity. OR - like in my theater - there were 4 ladies sitting to my left that actually laughed throughout the film. They were literally alone. They were middle-aged and seemingly lucid. I can not account for their reactions.
BEWARE - SEE AT YOUR OWN RISK
Suitguy is not bitter.
feels he represents the many educated and rational onlookers who believe that the hysterical denouncement of lay scepticism is both unwarranted and counter-productive
The problem, then, is that such calls do not address an opposition audience so much as they signal virtue. They talk past those who need convincing. They ignore actual facts and counterargument. And they are irreparably smug.
feels he represents the many educated and rational onlookers who believe that the hysterical denouncement of lay scepticism is both unwarranted and counter-productive
The problem, then, is that such calls do not address an opposition audience so much as they signal virtue. They talk past those who need convincing. They ignore actual facts and counterargument. And they are irreparably smug.