Love Guru, The

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

What links all these characters is Myers's gift for antic, elfin burlesque. He's like a second-best Peter Sellers.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Occasional bursts of comedy keep things from becoming unbearable but whenever Myers tries to get even a little serious or advance the "plot," the desire to take a nap becomes almost overpowering.

Film Threat Stina Chyn

To be sure, The Love Guru is incredibly funny. Side-splitting laughter only stops when the movie does, so don't expect it to linger all the way to the parking lot.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

I still kind of find myself admiring the actor, and the film. Love Guru is insane and self-indulgent but also fully committed, and there's a surprising undercurrent of earnestness to its philosophy portions.

Time Richard Corliss

The Love Guru is a shambling, hit-or-miss thing, like an old Laurel and Hardy two-reeler. And like the situations those comics often got into, this movie is a fine mess.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Piles dumb gag upon dumb gag - it's like benign pummeling. Occasionally, you just have to laugh.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Enraptured by bathroom humor that doesn't even reach sophomoric standards. It's more on the level of preschool.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A disappointment, but it's not a disaster, and that's at least something.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Travis Nichols

If you're a Toronto native or a big-time hockey geek, there are enough little in jokes to probably carry you through the leaden pacing and barrel-scraping gross-out humor, but it's an awfully dull ride for the rest of us.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Newcomers to the Mike Myers experience will leave this love train early.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

The film's sunniest moments occur whenever song preempts all the fighting and smirking. Myers leads the cast in sitar-accompanied covers of such Bollywood favorites as "9 to 5" and Steve Miller's "The Joker," revealing a glimmer of the cross-cultural romp that could have been.

Variety Brian Lowry

So relentlessly juvenile as to merit a new twist on the PG-13 rating -- one that strongly cautions not only those under 13 but anyone much above it, too.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The Love Guru”does not bring out Myer's best, and aside from a deft early Bollywood parody, there’s nothing visually to help the fun along.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Myers combines his love of references, silly names, and mindless repetition by having his guru use "Mariska Hargitay" as a greeting/mantra. The first time it's employed, it's merely unfunny; by the 13th or 40th time, it's almost hypnotic in its awfulness.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Myers is trying for another of his endearingly hormonal imp-egomaniacs, but hidden behind a wavy beard, a wax-curled mustache, and an astoundingly ugly squashed fake nose, he's a little too grotesque.

Washington Post John Anderson

The results are a wheezy, tired attempt to milk more laughs out of the '60s, by doing exactly what "Austin Powers" did.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Not only does the film stumble badly from one skit to another, the skits themselves have too much dead air.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Now and again some pungent writing leaks through to poke fun at the excruciating banality of guru wisdom. But mostly it’s dreary dick jokes and elephant poop, slack directing by Marco Schnabel, and, of all fatal errors, Mike Myers, shooting for cuddly.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

This Mike Myers vehicle exemplifies American comedy's continuing slide into infantilism.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Adam Sandler can breathe a sigh of relief: Thanks to this crude, bafflingly unfunny comedy from fellow SNL alum Mike Myers, Sandler can rest assured that his "You Don't Mess With The Zohan" won't go down as the worst movie of 2008.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The Love Guru is even funnier than "Wayne's World" or "Austin Powers." Not.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Myers has made some funny movies, but this film could have been written on toilet walls by callow adolescents.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The Love Guru is a comedy like the Leafs are a hockey team.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Insulting to anyone with a healthy sense of humor and the simple desire to laugh.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This is the first time we've seen Myers in the flesh since he committed assault and battery on Dr. Seuss, and I wish the cat had stayed in the hat.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

An atrocious, idiotic 88 minutes of anti-entertainment. To borrow word-shtick from the guru Pitka, it's AWFUL as in, "Anyone Watching Feels, Um, Loser-ish."

NPR Bob Mondello

None of them -- not one, not for a moment -- is remotely funny.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

It recycles gags from earlier and better Myers movies and hopes that the audience won't notice because they're too busy staring at Timberlake's bursting Speedo.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Ninety minutes pass like an eternity. Verdict: Down for the count.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Offensive to Hindus. Never mind the Hindus; The Love Guru is offensive to pretty much anyone with a brain.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The Love Guru is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The road taken by The Love Guru could hardly be lower, and leads nowhere.

Slate Dana Stevens

This tale of a guru who brings joy to all who meet him is the most joy-draining 88 minutes I've ever spent outside a hospital waiting room.