Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, some comic violence and drug references.
Directed by Marco Schnabel
Staring Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Ben Kingsley
The Love Guru is truly the lamest film I have seen in years! It was sheer torture.
Let me be clear. I really enjoy Michael Myers. Yes, he’s usually pretty crass. He loves to joke about farting, peeing, sex, and body parts. And The Love Guru has plenty of that. But usually Myers’ creativity manages to deliver.
Sorry… not with The Love Guru. This film never left the shipping yard!
Allow me to give an example. Michael Myers' movie Goldmember (in the Austin Powers series) was really crass and dirty, but I’ll be honest, it was hilarious. I almost cried during the scene where he unplugged the fountain and had to stand behind it and urinate to keep up the appearance of the fountain flowing. It was gross, but creative. It had the audience in stitches.
The Love Guru doesn’t even come close to any of Myers’ earlier films. It’s just not funny. Mel Brooks’ worst film was funnier than The Love Guru.
Allow me to elaborate. By just 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the film you’ll realize that you don’t want your kids watching this film. It’s way over the line. By 5 minutes, you won’t have even chuckled yet. At 13 minutes and 30 seconds, I saw the first creative moment in the film- a take off of the old TV show The Electric Company. I turned to my wife and said, “that was creative.” But still no laugh.
By 15 minutes, the film was painful. Painful in that… there are so much better things to do in life than watch garbage like this.
Don’t just skip this film… pull out the DVD and use it as a coaster for your drink!
Side Note:
As said above, we recommend you skip this film. But on the occasion that your teen actually has already seen it, you may want to dialogue about the film with them. These questions below may be a help to you.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
