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June 22, 2008
MIKE MYERS
In 1999, Mike Myers was the fastest-rising comic star in the world. Two years earlier, AUSTIN POWERS, a cheaply produced catch-phrase of a movie, was a surprise hit, and he followed it up with a good dramatic performance in a bad movie (54) and a smash hit of a sequel in AUSTIN POWER 2.
There are few less likely stars than Myers. He is odd-looking, diminutive, and lacks the gifts for physical comedy. Most of his humor involves him looking at the camera as if to remind us that he has just told a joke. This is the defining comic gesture of both Powers and his other iconic, constantly recycled creation, Wayne Campbell. Even when he left Saturday Night Live and the comfortably canned laughter of the audience, Myers still plays ever scene as though he has to wait for the audience to finish laughing. I don't know that I've ever seen a comic presence so in love with his own humor. Everything he does, or did, Will Ferrell does better, only Ferrell doesn't constantly fall back on characters.
But nine years (God Lord!) have past, and the only presence that has kept Myers on our radar is through his voicing of Shrek (and his universally reviled CAT IN THE HAT), one of the many Scottish characters he's done over the years. That's why THE LOVE GURU will probably bomb; everything about it seems like a vanity project, an excuse for Myers to be onscreen again. From the first trailer, it was greeted with a universal "meh;" we grew tired of the Austin Powers schtick after the second movie, but here he's adapting it to some more costumed goofiness.
I think Myers could occasionally be hilarious. His imitation of Ron Wood was brilliant. Dieter on SPROCKETS was inspired; that's still one of the best, most ridiculous skits to ever make SNL. And Wayne Campbell was a pretty nice rip-off a particular personality in the 1990s. He doesn't really exist anymore. Wayne Campbell would be playing video games and goofing around on Facebook today, and would have a web-cam instead of a public access show, and who the hell is Aerosmith and/or Heather Locklear? But the WAYNES WORLD movies had some really funny moments, even if they weren't comic masterpieces. But here's the thing, when you watch Jim Carrey in ACE VENTURA, you leave admiring Carrey's amazing physicality, his absurdly good timing, and his fearlessness. You don't see any of that in Myers.
The best moment in Myers' career was SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER, a genuine funny movie that also made for one of the few romantic comedies I like. It also features my all-time favorite example of the type of job only characters in movies have: in this case Myers makes in living (in San Francisco) reading poetry in coffee shops. This was before Myers' Scottish schtick got horribly, horribly old, and therefore the scenes where he plays his own Father are pretty amusing.
But as a normal guy caught up in a ridiculous rom-com, he performed pretty admirably. It's a shame, then, that he's dedicated himself to overplaying such goofball caricatures ever since.
That's how I feel about Mike Myers.
| By Andytown | 11:38 PM
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Comments
i agree with you totally. Mike Myers is hilarious.
Posted by: meerkat at June 25, 2008 11:57 AM
So, I can't get this out of my head now, thanks to your post. You've inspired me to copy and paste.
"Harriet. Harry-ette. Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis. Beautiful, bemuse-ed, bellicose butcher. Un-trust... ing. Un-know... ing. Un-love... ed? "He wants you back," he screamed into the night air like a fireman going to a window that has no fire... except the passion of his heart. I am lonely. It's really hard. This poem... sucks. "
Posted by: Andy at July 9, 2008 3:29 PM