By Robert Scucci
| Published
So I Married An Axe Murderer is one of those movies that I fondly remember watching on cable TV with my parents when I was probably too young to watch it, and I was at first reluctant to give it a rewatch because I feel a certain way about Mike Myers. Having grown up during Comedy Central’s era of filling their daytime programming with syndicated reruns of SNL and heavily censored movies before there was enough original content to fill their broadcast schedule, I’ve definitely had my fill of both the Austin Powers and Wayne’s World franchises during my formative years.
That is to say, I appreciate Mike Myers’ sense of humor, and have a solid understanding of the “graduating class” he came from, but sometimes I just don’t have the patience for his many accents, and jokes where he clearly wants to look at the camera with a wink and a “hello!” as if he wants to make sure his audience knows that it’s okay to laugh.
That being said, So I Married an Axe Murderer actually holds up in 2025 because of its pacing and almost too convenient segues, making it a solid dark rom-com without too much of Myers’ usual shtick to run it off the rails.
Wow, How Convenient!
Normally, I’m not a fan of when a screenplay comes off as patronizing in the sense that it has to over-explain its exposition to the audience, but in the case of So I Married an Axe Murderer, the film benefits from jamming its beats down your throat so you can sit back and enjoy the gags.
The rundown for So I Married an Axe Murderer is simple but incredibly effective because you know a joke is getting set up, enough time passes for you to forget about the setup even though it’s still in the back of your mind, and then eventually you get a payoff.
Woman! Whoaaa, Man!
So I Married an Axe Murderer begins by introducing Charlie MacKenzie (Mike Myers), a beat poet living in San Francisco who often uses his romantic woes as inspiration for his frequent appearances and performances at a poetry club where his work is well-received. Charlie’s frequent breakups are often subject to criticism from his best friend, Tony (Anthony LaPaglia), who asserts that he turns trivial physical or personality traits – like smelling like soup – into reasons to end an otherwise perfect relationship. One day, while picking up an order of haggis before visiting his Scottish immigrant parents, Stuart (also Mike Myers, but doing an obnoxious accent under heavy makeup) and May (Brenda Fricker), Charlie becomes smitten with a butcher named Harriet (Nancy Travis).
Charlie learns about a mysterious woman named “Mrs. X,” whom his mother learned about while reading a gossip magazine similar to The National Enquirer called Weekly World News. Mrs. X, who is considered extremely dangerous, has allegedly murdered several of her husbands on the night of their honeymoons, and is still at large. Charlie writes off his mother’s interest in the story because, in his mind, this is just a made up sensational news story written to sell magazines to elderly housewives at the grocery store checkout.
Conveniently, So I Married an Axe Murderer lays all of its cards on the table by its second act when Charlie has reason to believe that Harriet is actually Mrs. X. Not only is Harriet tight-lipped about her past, Charlie notices parallels between what he knows about her previous relationships and the victims described in the Weekly World News articles about the murders.
Tony, who thinks Charlie is simply looking for a valid reason to break up with Harriet, writes off Charlie’s concerns as yet another way to get out of a relationship instead of committing to a woman and putting a ring on her finger.
Is Charlie actually dating, and eventually marrying a serial killer named Mrs. X? Or is he becoming unjustifiably paranoid after experiencing a few coincidences so he can exit his relationship with Harriet guilt free? That’s the question that So I Married an Axe Murderer attempts to answer.
Anthony LaPaglia Steals The Show
Though Mike Myers obviously received top-billing in So I Married an Axe Murderer, Anthony LaPaglia’s Tony Giardino is the reason you want to revisit this movie. A police officer having recently been promoted to detective, Tony becomes depressed on the job because he thought his day-to-day interactions would be more intense. So much, in fact, that he blows up on his captain (Alan Arkin), for not being the stereotypical hardass boss he sees in police movies and TV dramas.
Remember when I said there were joke setups that don’t pay off until later in the movie? Well, enough time passes to forget about Tony’s conversation with his captain, which seems like a passing joke, only for Alan Arkin to burst into his office screaming about how he has to look into Charlie’s Mrs. X queries with caution (or the commissioner is going to have his ass!). After an incredibly tense moment, Arkin sighs, and asks Tony if that’s the kind of dynamic he was looking for. Tony gives him notes for their next “heated exchange,” and then they both go about their jobs as if nothing had happened.
Moments like this are peppered throughout So I Married an Axe Murderer, and reason enough to throw it on your watch list.
Streaming So I Married An Axe Murderer
So I Married an Axe Murderer, while definitely a relic of the ‘90s, still holds up to this day because of its absurd premise and rapid-fire joke delivery. What’s more, for every quick setup and punchline, a solid story is built around its primary conflict that has enough room to let situational humor take center stage and develop instead of relying solely on sight gags and semantic puns. While my Mike Myers mileage varies from film to film, I can confidently say that this is one of his more memorable outings despite what its 55 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes would lead you to believe.
As of this writing, you can stream So I Married an Axe Murderer for free on Tubi.
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