JoshVision–The Diet Coke of Evil

To High School Me, Mike Myers was a God among men. Jamey and I would often sit at the cafeteria lunch table (“The Table” as it was so creatively known) and exchange Austin Powers quotes, saying things had “frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads” and that we’d been “frozen for thirty freakin’ years.” To the 17 year old brain, this was the pinnacle of comedy. Hell, to my 26 year old brain, it’s still pretty funny. I’ll still occasionally break out a “no this is me in a nutshell.” Hilarious.

Then right at the end of our senior year Austin Powers 2 came out. I remember we went and saw it during Beach Week. It was pretty good, nothing compared to the first, but still decently watchable. Quotes like “get in my belly” just didn’t seem to have the heft of the originals, though. It was painfully obvious that Myers was losing steam.

By the time Austin Powers 3 rolled around, the magic was clearly gone. The jokes felt stale, juvenile, and recycled. To put it nicely, it was a hot pile of wet garbage. Jamey claims that he’s never seen someone as pissed off while watching a movie as I was during AP 3. Apparently he wasn’t paying attention to me during Episode 1: A Phantom Menace. What the hell is a “Phantom Menace” anyway?

Now Mike Myers has a new project called “Love Guru.” You’ve probably seen the trailers by now. If not, check it out here. I’ll wait.

Hardly A+ material to say the least. It’s like Mike Myers is in an SNL skit in which he’s doing an impression of himself in a bad movie, but not the funny kind of SNL skit, the kind that stars Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz and goes absolutely nowhere. In the pre Cat in the Hat days, a trailer like this from Mr. Myers would have either really depressed or really ticked me off. Now, it just seems like more evidence of a one time comedic deity either running out of ideas or simply being destroyed by Hollywood. It’s sad really. Yeah baby, it really is.

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