THE MOVIE:

Mike Myers has a new movie coming out, something called The Love Guru, and so it looks like Sony/TriStar, who have one old Mike Myers vehicle taking up space in their back catalogue, saw a chance to get a little added heat while the hype machine for Guru reminds us that we all actually liked Mike Myers once upon a time. That's the only reason I can think of for this So I Married an Axe Murderer: Special Edition, which isn't really much of a Special Edition at all. Not unless a cardboard slipcase cover makes it special, because that's the only thing new about this DVD. There is possibly a slight video upgrade, but the audio options are actually less than the 1999 disc, so if you speak Portuguese or Spanish, you're not going to find that to be much of a trade-off.

So I Married an Axe Murderer was Myers' quick capitalization on his popularity after Wayne's World. Made in 1993 in between that film and its sequel, it shows the star trying to establish himself as a more straightforward comedic leading man. This doesn't mean a straightforward comedy, mind you, but it is the lone movie where Myers doesn't disappear behind an overly stylized, overly costumed character. Well, not unless you count the fact that he dons a kilt and old man make-up to play his own overtly Scottish father (he looks like Al Franken in a skirt). That's just a supporting lark. Primarily, he is Charlie MacKenzie, and Charlie MacKenzie doesn't wear funny clothes or have messed-up teeth. He's just a dude.

Unfortunately, he's a far too standard comedy dude, afraid to commit to any one woman due to an overbearing paranoia. He was convinced his last girlfriend was a thief, and so he broke up with her. It's what he does any time things get serious, and it looks like he's going to do it again with Harriet (Nancy Travis), the adorable butcher he's started seeing. Charlie doesn't detect any immediate problems, but a story from the Weekly World News his mother (Brenda Fricker) showed him about a black widow killer who murders her husbands on their honeymoon has a lot of eerie correspondences to Harriet's life. Could she be the mysterious Madame X, waiting to lure Charlie to her marriage bed and an early grave?

Oh, the hilarity! Like a Hindenburg of comedy, So I Married an Axe Murderer smacks pretty hard into the unfunny. Written by Robbie Fox, whose shameful resume also includes the Pauly Shore movie In the Army Now, but directed by the excellent Thomas Schlamme, the man behind the camera on Aaron Sorkin's television shows, Axe Murderer is long on quirks and short on laughs. I remembered liking it okay back in the day, and it's still not without a little appeal, but talk about being stuck in the moment. The only thing missing from this early '90s time capsule is Myers in flannel and blonde dreadlocks. Are you nostalgic for cappuccino jokes? Slapstick with a Thighmaster? How about songs by the Spin Doctors or Soul Asylum? Because, boy howdy, this movie has them all!

The Lollapalooza-flavored soundtrack aside, there are a few bright spots in So I Married an Axe Murderer. Alan Arkin, Phil Hartman, and Charles Grodin all have outstanding bit parts that lighten the proceedings, and a Michael Richards cameo now comes off as strangely prescient given the dark turn the man's real life has taken in recent years. Anthony LaPaglia is delightful as Charlie's best friend, a bored police officer who dreams of being Serpico. Mike Myers is even good, but really only as Charlie's father. Even then, it feels like that character has been bussed in from a different Mike Myers movie. He stands out like a hammy sore thumb in this one.

I've finally begun to see why Mike Myers has avoided playing a regular guy in any of his other movies. He just doesn't have the presence for it. Rather than just be a sweet, charming fellow, the comedian overcompensates by trying to shoehorn a catchphrase into every scene. Charlie has all the same gestures and mannerisms of a more flamboyant Myers creation, but they are out-of-place on your average joe. Even the character's job comes off as forced shtick: he's a beat poet. Since we don't see him do anything else, apparently it's enough to pay the bills. It even comes with health insurance! But then, I guess that makes sense in the fairy-tale San Francisco that Schlamme has created, where the locals hang out in gimmicky diners and go to tourist attractions for fun.

Not to be totally negative, in addition to the fine supporting players, So I Married an Axe Murderer does begin to find its groove in the final third of the movie, after Charlie and Harriet are married and his paranoia comes to a head. With the pace cranked up and the movie taking bizarre turns into parody of cheesy thrillers, it finally starts to generate the manic energy to go with the concept. It's just by then, it's too little too late.

THE DVD

Video:
Judging by our review of the original 1999 release, I'd hazard to say that this new Special Edition may be sporting a slightly better video transfer. The old edition was a flipper disc with both the full frame and widescreen versions of the film; the 2008 reissue only has the 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, now mastered in high definition. I didn't notice any grain like the previous writer complained about, it all looked bright and clear to me.

Sound:
The sound also gets an upgrade to a 5.1 mix, and in the English version, I did notice some nice atmospheric effects putting background ambience in my back speakers. There is also a 5.1 French dub and subtitles in both languages.

Missing from the previous disc: dubs in Spanish and Portuguese and subtitles in Chinese, Korean, Thai, Spanish, and Portuguese. Granted, back then you didn't have a French version, so this time, France wins.

Extras:
Here is the rub: zero extras. That's right, an upgrade to a Special Edition, and no added features whatsoever. Five trailers play before the movie loads, and then you can also watch them on your own terms from a submenu. Check out the preview for My Mom's New Boyfriend and pity the creature that was once Meg Ryan.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I'll admit, So I Married an Axe Murderer deserves some credit for being a gung-ho comedic effort. Unfortunately, the years have not been kind to it. Terminally stuck in the '90s, much of the pop culture riffs have gone stale, and though Mike Myers wants to be cute and funny and lovable as the neurotic and paranoid boyfriend, he is poorly suited for such a straight-laced role. His need to mug for the camera gets in the way of any normalcy he manages to pull off, and he flounders in a story that takes a good hour to find its rhythm. Supporting players do a lot to help the movie from sinking into unwatchable territory, and the climax has some decent gags, so based on those things, I'd suggest you Rent It if all of the better comedies you are looking for are already checked out. Otherwise, this one is a stiff.

Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Joelle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent projects include the futuristic romance A Boy and a Girl with Natalie Nourigat; Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, a loopy crime tale drawn by Dan Christensen; and the horror miniseries Madame Frankenstein, a collaboration with Megan Levens. Follow Rich's blog at Confessions123.com.