Background: Mike Myers gives Shrek a rest, to star in his first live-action movie since 2003's woeful The Cat In The Hat. This time Myers plays Pitka -- an American raised by Indian gurus who returns to the States to break into the self-help business.
Review: Judging from this trailer, we're back on overly-familiar territory for Mike Myers: a silly comedy accent (Indian), a sexy babe to drool over (Jessica Alba), a dwarf to poke fun at (Mini-Me himself Verne Troyer), and most of the jokes look firmly in the Austin Powers tradition. We even get a variant of Goldmember's "false legs" sight-gag, Pitka explains his own jokes (Dr Evil-style) and accidentally puts his foot in it with "shrimp" Troyer (a la Austin's "mole" gaffe in Goldmember.)
But is the trailer funny? Well, I chuckled a few times. It's oddball and vibrant enough to keep you amused, and despite signalling Myers' inability to move on from Austin Powers, we'll be in for a treat if it's half as funny as his spy spoofs. But that doesn't look like a sure thing.
Prediction: Mike Myers still has fans, plenty of goodwill, and I'm glad to see him back in the movies. This doesn't look to be much of a stretch for him, and I somehow doubt Pitka will be as enduring as Austin and Dr Evil, but I'm certainly willing to wait and see if further glimpses make me laugh harder. I predict solid but unremarkable box-office.
HD 480P (55 MB)
HD 720P (82 MB)
HD 1080P (177 MB)
