The “scathingly reviewed” 1993 movie that blindsided Mike Myers: “That was shocking to me”
Every actor and filmmaker goes into every movie with the best of intentions, and while Mike Myers thought he had a winner on his hands, the negative response left him completely blindsided.
Nobody makes a bad film on purpose, and even when those involved know they’ve made something awful, they have to put on a brave face, smile for the cameras, and talk through their arse for the duration of the press tour, pretending their latest release is the new benchmark of their career.
Once the dust has settled, though, they’re free to shit all over it, and many of them have. Myers generally hasn’t been one of them, with the star and comedian refusing to speak negatively of his big-screen work, even if The Love Guru is right there and about as indefensible as it gets.
His cinema stint got off to a great start, with the Saturday Night Live veteran bringing one of his recurring characters to the big screen in Wayne’s World, which recouped its budget almost ten times over from theatres, became one of the defining comedies of the 1990s, and gave Queen a new lease of life.
As you’d imagine, he was instantly pegged as the show’s next breakout star, and having followed a similar path from Studio 8H to box office success right out of the gate, many were predicting an Eddie Murphy-esque rise to A-list status. That didn’t quite happen, although Myers did very well for himself until he torpedoed his reputation with the aforementioned Love Guru, but his follow-up was a sticky wicket.
Less than five months before Wayne’s World 2 was released, a film that suffered from intense behind-the-scenes turmoil, Myers headlined So I Married an Axe Murderer, another film that suffered from intense behind-the-scenes turmoil, in what would become a suspiciously recurring theme.
These days, it’s developed a solid cult following, but in the summer of 1993, it fell drastically short of expectations in terms of both its earning power and ability to please critics or audiences. There was a general shrug of indifference towards the picture, and Myers admitted that he didn’t see it coming.
“People will say, ‘Oh, I love So I Married an Axe Murderer,'” he acknowledged. “But at the time, it was scathingly reviewed, and that reaction was shocking to me.” He thought he was onto a winner, and while time has been relatively kind to the murderous romp, realising that his second feature-length undertaking was getting battered in all corners came out of the blue.
In general, Myers summed up his career by saying, “I just make stuff, and sometimes it does well,” which isn’t too far wide of the mark. For every Wayne’s World or Austin Powers, there’s a Love Guru or The Pentaverate, with So I Married An Axe Murderer falling somewhere in the middle.
