The Guru
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.03 You Save: $12.95 (86%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Guru
Movie Review: sorry not very impressed
Summary: 3 Stars
sorry. not very impressed. here is why.1. did not really get the point across
2. story is mediocre, nothing extra-ordinary
However, there are some good points
1. acting was B+
2. never really got boring or anything
By the way, there is absolutely no adult scenes here, just
adult topic.
Movie Review: pretty good, but not quite Good
Summary: 3 Stars
this film had a interesting story line with alot of twists&turns but the writing&overall story structuring take this film down a peg from reaching it's full zenith. the acting was cool but the film overall didn't match that intensity.Movie Review: Guru
Summary: 3 Stars
I love this movie. It's light-hearted and funny. It includes some Bollywood dancing and a happy ending. Perfect for a friday night.Movie Review: Colorful but lightweight Romantic Comedy
Summary: 2 Stars
The Guru is one those pictures which is more interesting watching the film with the commentary on DVD than watching the film without it. Actually there are two sets of commentaries on the DVD: one with the director, Daisy von Scherler Mayer and screenwriter, Tracey Jackson together and another with the film's star, Jimi Mistry. There are all kinds of facts about the making of the picture that are quite fascinating (for example, the director decided to leave in a scene of a real-life paparazzi taking a picture of Heather Graham as the film was being shot!).
On the plus side, The Guru has a strong cast which includes the extremely funny and talented Michael McKean (I loved him in 'Coneheads'), Christine Baranski (she was excellent in the recent Broadway production of 'Boeing, Boeing') and the very versatile Marisa Tomei who steals the show here as a spoiled, neurotic daughter in a upper-crust New York family who pursues eastern spiritualism without giving up her western decadence and sense of entitlement.
Despite the potential, The Guru ends up as lightweight fare, the kind of entertainment you will soon forget about after a first viewing. While the plotting is more than acceptable, the problem is that the story simply isn't funny. This is mainly due to a lack of inspiration on the part of screenwriter Jackson. She readily admits that she intentionally softened up some of the more unsavory aspects of her story--particularly in her treatment of the porn industry, in order to lighten the overall mood. By doing so, she dumbs down her characters into sentimental cream puffs so that the humor no longer has an edge. No one clear-cut antagonist emerges for Ramu Gupta (The Guru) to oppose. Instead, the focus is more on his internal arc in which he battles the seduction of crass materialism.
Even if we are willing to accept the screenwriter's distorted but 'affectionate send-ups', the Guru has a more serious problem. If you think about it, The Guru is a story that could actually happen. How many times have we heard stories about various Svengali-like figures seducing masses of gullible people? Even though the Guru is supposed to be an exaggerated tale of seduction, the method by which the seduction is executed must be somewhat credible. When the Swami passes out at the catered party and Ramu has to pretend that he is now the all-knowing Guru, he first breaks into a dance which immediately seems to mesmerize the group of pretentious New York intellectuals who have been waiting for their next spiritual mentor to open up their chakras and show them 'the light'. It's a farcical moment, not very clever, but something we're willing to accept in order to see what comes next.
As it turns out, Gupta relies on his muse, Sharrona (Heather Graham), the porn star masquerading as a substitute teacher, for a string of aphorisms that somehow turns everybody into cult-like followers. The aphorisms aren't clever at all. Sharrona coughs up such profundities as "Fear is cold, it freezes up"; when we come, we let go of our fears"; "my pussy is the door to my soul". The point is that the pretentious intellectuals are so stupid that they fall for these inane pontifications. It's obvious stuff and in screenwriter Jackson's dumbed-down world, the Guru has it TOO easy seducing these buffoons. Jackson's satire has no bite since she has created no credible targets to satirize. The Guru's victims needed to be more fleshed out, real people and the Guru needed a much more clever, original and believable plan rather than merely spouting a few trite aphorisms that sway everybody to him.
Toward the end of the film, the Guru jokes have worn out their welcome (they weren't funny at the beginning of the film too!). The Guru devolves into standard romantic comedy fare with Sharonna suddenly realizing that she was meant for Ramu all along. The Guru cannot be accused of not being good-natured however. In a plea for tolerance, Sharrona's fiancé realizes that he too (all along) has been in love and at the movie's end he's fallen for his gay firefighter boyfriend.
The Guru was filmed on location in New York City as well as some of the early scenes on location in India. It's a colorful film, well-acted including some lively dance numbers. Nonetheless, The Guru is so lightweight that it lacks the main ingredient for comedy: laughs!!!
Movie Review: Interesting concept drowned in a mishmash of H'Wood cliches
Summary: 2 Stars
Ramu Gupta (Jimi Mistry) is an Indian dance teacher who decides to leave India and head to the US to pursue his dream of becoming a famous actor. Unfortunately the ad he answers in regards to an acting job in NY turns out to be a role in a porn film, where he meets Sharona (Heather Graham) a Catholic college student doing adult movies to help pay for her education.But with the aid of the insightful Sharona, Ramu finds himself tackling the acting role of his career by becoming a self-styled Guru Of Sex with the experienced Sharona teaching him about the spirituality of sex- which he then uses on his followers without her knowledge. Of course Ramu becomes a sensation on TV so it's no surprise what happens next.
THE GURU is a strained, not terribly funny one-joke comedy which is a strange mix of sweet-naturedness with sleazy undertones. It's cheerful enough, but it doesn't really work. As proof that Hollywood has no new ideas, the movie rips off GREASE at the climax- clips of which are shown earlier with Indian subtitles.
THE GURU is a movie with a self-satisifed script, and this is always a bad sign for audiences: Apart from the GREASE [copy] note that a) Marisa Tomei's character gives an Oscar reference. We all know she's an Oscar winner, the cover of every one of her movies states that. b)Heather Graham's big break came by playing porn star Rollergirl in Paul Thomas Anderson's BOOGIE NIGHTS and c) The obvious "Bollywood" references which show Hollywood trying to be hip, because even though its well known India has the most prolific cinematic output worldwide; it's only recently that Western audiences are learning about it. Oh well, at least you get to see Heather clad in black PVC bondage gear. And from one of Ramu's Indian friends comes this dialogue which could only sound funny in an Indian accent: (after speaking to Sharona on the phone) "I talked to a real life porn star! I think she sounded naked!". Try to imagine Russell Crowe or Van Damme speaking that line of dialogue. It just wouldn't work, would it?