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So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993)

A comedy with an edge

Rating: 6/10

Running Time: 93 minutes

UK Certificate: 15

On DVD

Here’s a rare appearance from Mike Myers where he plays not a time-travelling swinger, an air-guitaring TV host or a big green bog monster – but just a normal guy. Well, fairly normal at least.

He’s Charlie Mackenzie, the San Francisco coffee house poet who’s spent his life coming up with near-Seinfeldian excuses to cut-short all of his relationships with women (eg ‘she smells exactly like beef vegetable soup’). That’s until he meets sexy butcher lady Harriet (Nancy Travis), and the pair instantly hit it off.

The trouble is Harriet fits the profile of a tabloid-covered serial killer to the letter. ‘Mrs X’, as she’s dubbed by the World Weekly News, has made a bit of a habit out of marrying men and then bumping them off on their Honeymoon. All of which looks like bad news for Charlie, who’s all set to walk down the aisle with his sausage-linking sweetheart. So, is she the killer or not? Well you’ll just have to watch it and find out for yourself, because I’m saying nothing.

It’s a fairly overdone plot which doesn’t really work particularly well, but some of the comedy moments on show are well worth catching, particularly if you’re already a Myers fan. Top of the laughs is Charlie’s dad Stuart (also played by Myers), a goggle-eyed Scot who hangs pictures of Caledonian celebs on his living room wall, guzzles McEwan’s Export and listens to the Bay City Rollers. It’s a pretty accurate snapshot of domestic Scottish life, actually.

This came in-between the two ‘Wayne’s World’ outings for Myers, and doesn’t really enjoy the cult status of either of those movies or, more recently, the ‘Austin Powers’ flicks. But it’s an intermittently funny film featuring some nice touches and a great little cast.

It's Got: An uncredited Alan Arkin with an inspired performance as a hyper-sensitive police chief. Look out for Phil Hartman, Charles Grodin and Michael ‘Kramer’ Richards among the other cameos of note.

It Needs: To explain how Charlie manages to make a living out of such rank awful poetry.

DVD Extras Just a trailer. DVD Extras Rating: 1/10

Summary

Not exactly a thinker, but it’s a nice chortlesome way to spend an hour-and-a-half.