So I Married an Axe Murderer

The sad thing is that this is Mike Myers' lowest grossing film, which shows just what most people know. It's absolutely his best one though, with more likeable wit than the 2 Austin Powers pics and better characters and plot than the Waynes World movies.

Myers can only really do about 4 voices (Himself, Wayne, Austin and a Scotsman, which he's doing AGAIN in Shrek now) and he gets to show them all off here, which is actually great. He's great as his miserable dad, and the whole thing is just great fun, a really good film. Nancy Travis and Anthony LaPaglia as his insecure cop buddy support Myers well all the way through. Mike Myers and this movie just rule.

Mike Myers gives Waynes World a rest and delivers what I think is a better movie.... well better than Waynes World 2 anyway. It is a truly great movie with Mike playing a duel role, firstly as Charlie MacKenzie a young guy who is scared of commitment to women, then his dad Stuart MacKenzie a very funny Scotsman who could take the lead role in X Files with his ideas on Conspiracy. Nancy Travis stars as a butcher... Harriet, who ends up with Charlie..... A great movie that is very funny in the pre Austin Powers age, a 7 out of 10.

"So I Married an Axe Murderer" is a delightfully offbeat, inventive comedy I can see again and again, and laugh every time.

Mike Myers, in a dual role as the neurotic but romantic Charlie McKenzie and Charlie's cantankerous father, gives the best performance I've seen from him so far (I've yet to see the "Austin Powers" movies but I didn't especially care for "Wayne's World," maybe because I couldn't stand Dana Carvey or his character). Nancy Travis is quite good as Harriet, the seemingly perfect girlfriend who's got a secret. The supporting cast also does excellent work, especially Anthony LaPaglia as Charlie's policeman buddy Tony.

What makes this movie truly special isn't the principal story line -- the romance-mystery-suspense -- but the many wonderful bits of inspired lunacy/hilarity along the way. Among them: every scene involving the hero's cantankerous dad; Harriet's sister Rose persuading Charlie to stay for breakfast; Phil Hartman's cameo as a very intense tour guide at Alcatraz (this scene gets butchered when the movie is edited for TV, even non-premium cable; make sure you see the uncut version!); Charles Grodin as the surly driver of a vehicle commandeered by a cop; an episode involving a guy who works on the obituary page of a newspaper; the side-splitting scenes between Tony and his precinct captain (a very funny Alan Arkin). There are many such moments throughout the film, turning up in the most unexpected places. The dialogue is witty, and the humor is completely unpredictable and fresh.

To most of us, Mike Myers is either Wayne Campbell or Austin Powers. So, it may come to some surprise that he played a somewhat different role in "So I Married an Axe Murderer". As San Francisco poet Charlie Mackenzie, who suspects that his girlfriend (Nancy Travis) may be a killer, he makes the most of his role. As it is, he not only plays Charlie, but also Charlie's Scottish immigrant father (he was probably priming himself to play multiple roles in the Austin Powers movies). Watching the movie, one may feel like writing some poetry.

There are some scenes in the movie that might tense you up. But, they know how to play these scenes so that everything comes out funny. After all, this is Mike Myers here. Anyway, it's not the funniest movie ever, but still worth seeing, if only once. Also starring Anthony LaPaglia, Amanda Plummer, Brenda Fricker, Matt Doherty, Charles Grodin, Phil Hartman, Debi Mazar, Steven Wright, and Michael Richards in a brief appearance.

I saw this film on cable not long after its release and remember enjoying it. But like most films, it didn't leave a lasting impression. For some reason I have had a DVD copy of the film in my collection for some time now, probably a b-day gift or some such, and I never watch it…Last night, sixteen years after it first appeared, I watched it again.

Sometimes, a piece of art takes time and multiple exposures for its audience to fully appreciate its quality. This is definitely the case with this film. For me, a film should show me new characters or new settings or give me a new way of looking at a recognizable situation. So often films just give their audience the same tired stereotypical content; Characters that differ in name only from other films and plot lines that so closely follow previous successful productions that I'm surprised there aren't more lawsuits between artists. Such is not the case with "So I Married an Axe Murderer". With the tiny exception of the girlfriend of the chief supporting character, every role can accurately be described as unique. A butcher shop owner/operator (Nancy Travis) for a leading lady that may be wielding her cleaver in the off hours plus her curiously flighty sister (Amanda Plummer). A suburban San Francisco family of intensely Scottish decent that includes the youngest son with an enormous head and a Mother (Brenda Fricker) who has no qualms about French kissing her eldest son's best friend just to assure herself he's good at it. There's a light aircraft charter pilot (Steven Wright) that probably shouldn't have been awarded a license and a slightly embittered, slightly maniacal former Alcatraz guard/now tour guide (Phil Hartman) who makes me laugh just to look at him on screen. There's an undercover cop best friend (Anthony LaPaglia) that wanted to be Starsky or Hutch but instead learns the job really entails filling out a lot of forms and his boss (Alan Arkin) who, if it wasn't for Mike Myer's performance, would have stolen the movie with his portrayal of a Police Chief that can only be described as the antithesis of that character that we've seen so many times in films and TV.

About Mike Myers: Intensely likable. Free and easy on film at a young age he creates two wonderful characters that make us laugh hard throughout. As the lead Charlie McKenzie and as his father Stuart, Myers keeps the film moving with his paranoid yet irresistible charm from Charlie and his Robin Williamsesque quips that flow from his two characters accomplishing the most difficult task for such a performance; namely, entertain without distracting from the story.

I've added this film to my "Favorites" list and recommend it highly. If you liked "You Can't Take it With You" you'll love this more contemporary yet equally quirky film of love and family.