Reel Critic:

Devoted followers of Mike Myers will gain some inspirational comedy and romantic guidance by making an appointment to see “The Love Guru.” It’s a polarizing and harmless little film that some will love and others will loathe.

Guru Pitka (Myers) is the second most popular guru in the world and he has lived his entire life in the shadow of his nemesis, Deepak Chopra. Pitka thinks he can dethrone Deepak by appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” but he needs a hook to get booked.

In order to score some positive press, Pitka goes to work for the Toronto Maple Leafs to help reconcile the marriage of their star hockey player, Darren Roanoke. Can Pitka instill his magic on a stubborn professional athlete, save the season and get the call from Oprah? Has Sir Ben Kingsley lost his mind or is he just broke? You don’t need a self-help expert to answer these questions, just a movie ticket.

“The Love Guru” is the perfect film for 15-year-old boys or grown men with the mental capacity of a child. That probably explains why I liked the movie. You can leave your brain and problems at home when you enter the theater but many of the jokes still require a keen sense of humor in order to understand the payoff. I believe the stuffy old guard of professional film critics can’t relate to this parody and that’s why it’s getting such nasty coverage in the media.

The entire production is a running joke on “gurus” and the people that follow them. The character that Myers created could definitely be offensive to people who practice Hinduism. Since Hinduism is the third largest religion on Earth, this was not the smartest marketing move by the director, Marco Schnabel and Paramount Pictures. If you happen to see this 88-minute PG-13 film, please don’t take the material literally. It’s a silly summer comedy and not a documentary trying to solve world hunger.

The production value is substantial and very colorful. Like many of Myers’ previous films, there are full-scale musical numbers sprinkled in to pump up the crowd. Famous singer Justin Timberlake has an important supporting role but broad comedy is not his greatest strength. The young girls in my audience shrieked loudly when he appeared shirtless during a shower scene with various large members of his team. If you’re a fan of Justin, you should purchase a ticket just to see that slippery moment and to hear his awkward French-Canadian accent while he plays goalie for the L.A. Kings.