Mike Myers: The antifunny?
Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 6:53 AM by Paige Newman
Filed Under:
Movies
Editor's note: It's finally happening! The Entertainment staff is turning Test Pattern into a group Weblog, meaning editors Paige Newman, Kurt Schlosser, Anna Chan and Denise Hazlick will be popping in and posting entries along with longtime Test Pattern blogger Gael Fashingbauer Cooper. A line under the headline of each post will tell you who wrote what. We're also planning to change the blog's name to indicate that television issues aren't the only topic of discussion, but that may take a while. Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy our group effort.
Mike Myers’ latest comedy, “The Love Guru,” was a train wreck with both critics and fans. It came in fourth at the box office, earning a mere $14 million. Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Nikki Finke reported that an unnamed studio executive summed up the situation with the one-syllable, “Ugh.”
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Not everyone's ready to love "The Love Guru."
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"Guru" also scored a paltry 15 percent "fresh" rating with critics on RottenTomatoes.com, and a 23 on MetaCritic.com. New York Times critic A.O. Scott wrote, “The ‘Love Guru’ is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you’ll ever laugh again.” And Slate.com’s Dana Stevens called it “the most joy-draining 88 minutes I've ever spent outside a hospital waiting room.”
When I see reviews this scathing, my first reaction is to laugh. Positive reviews can be so dull to read, but a really awful one can be downright gleeful.
And it’s honestly a bit hard to like Mike Myers. A recent Entertainment Weekly interview painted him as a control freak who, the magazine alleges, was jealous of Dana Carvey during the “Wayne’s World” era (Carvey denies the claim). EW quoted one unnamed executive who said, “I honestly root against him.”
When Myers appeared on “The Daily Show,” the comedian seemed genuinely upset that Jon Stewart didn’t let him set up the unfunny clip of his film. There’s something so cloying about Myers these days — it’s as if he thinks if he repeats a joke often enough, he will wear down the audience into laughing. And his kind of movie — the silly, based-on-a-skit type — seems slightly archaic in the post-“Superbad,” “Knocked Up” world, which feature characters who feel real.
But maybe I’m being unfair. I’m not the projected audience for a Myers movie. I did not run out and see “The Love Guru.” Though I’ve seen both “Wayne’s World” films and two of the “Austin Powers” movies, for me he belongs in the same tries-too-hard, grating camp that Robin Williams and Will Ferrell inhabit. But, I do wonder, do his fans even still love Myers?
Did you see the “The Love Guru”? Did you like it? Were you ever a Myers fan? And if so, are you still? Would you want another “Austin Powers” film or another “Wayne’s World” (which Myers is reportedly in talks to do)? Am I totally off base about Myers? Convince me I’m wrong and, heck, I may even sentence myself to watch “Guru.”
