If you build a movie around an insufferable character, then chances are you're going to wind up with an insufferable movie. That's exactly what happened with The Love Guru, a motion picture so unfunny that it actually killed Mike Myers' career. Had The Love Guru been just unfunny, though, the film might have been somewhat forgivable - unfortunately, it is a gruelling exercise in testing one's patience that seems designed as a laughter-killer. Mike Myers plays the central character of the title, of course, and in doing so he winds up crafting one of cinema's most intolerable protagonists. There are no proper jokes in The Love Guru; the film gets by, instead, on being slightly racist and overtly sexiest for all of its runtime. It's so exhausting to sit through on the basis that nothing sticks. Having sat through the entire film, the inevitable next step is to take a long, contemplative holiday.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.