Austin Powers In Goldmember
The Austin Powers Franchise more or less was always an exercise in comedy self indulgence for Mike Myers, one that saw him always work with a very tight knit regular ensemble cast (Seth Green, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling and Verne Troyer as Mini Me starting in Part 2) and of course practice his penchant for copying his idol Peter Sellers by personally taking on the task of always playing more than one character in each film, a habit that formed mixed results at least when compared to Sellers himself (whom by changing his voice and mannerisms in the most subtle ways actually managed to be able to interact with himself in the same scene without the audience realizing that both characters were being played by Sellers most famously in Dr. Strangelove, an ability that Myers is not quite able to reproduce). The general theme of the films were that of James Bond / secret agent spoofs (with more obvious influence from James Coburnâs Flint spy films than anyone cared to admit), portraying a world where both international spies and evil masterminds wanting to take over the world would have a tendency to act like idiot children just about all of the time. Myersâ key characterization of Powers himself was certainly annoying at first glance but yet still managed to win over both audiences and pop culture purveyors themselves with his various catchphrases and bon mots (âYeah baby!â) being passed around by people in real life all the time during the 1997-2002 timeframe that these movies were made in. But it was Myers as the ongoing supervillain Dr. Evil where he really managed to strike gold, stealing the movies outright from all the other actors and performances (while expertly parodying the original version of Bond villain Blofeld as played by Donald Pleasence) by showing that most ultra intelligent bad guys can also have a little bit too much of a social misfit pathos vibe to him as shown by the hilarious relationship between him and his son Scott Evil (Green) which leaves him just as much a target for mockery as it makes him someone to be feared. Myers would add a new villain character to his gallery in Part 2 with Fat Bastard, a character who was meant to be disgusting but also funny as well even as he mostly came off as being the former. The first two films made so much money that Myers was basically given carte blanche in terms of both budget and creativity for Part 3, opening the film with an elaborate action sequence and a slew of cameos coming at the viewer fast and thick (in fact, there were so many cameos for this film that they actually got their own separate credit list). Myers was quoted as saying that this was his favorite film in the series and one can see why since obviously nobody said no to him when it came to doing his patented juvenile brand of humor and sadly, indulge his tendency to blatantly recycle gags from previous films in an attempt to squeeze another laugh out of them (most notoriously the interrupting schtick between Dr. Evil and his son) and other bits that might be new but still donât work like Fred Savage as the secret agent who has infiltrated Dr. Evilâs organization (a mole) who also happens to have a very large mole on his own upper lip or a scene between Austin and an incarcerated Dr. Evil that essentially plays like a spoof on Silence Of The Lambs done about 10 years too late after every other wacky comedy in that time period had already done their own version. The good news is that the new character being played by Myers is certainly better than Fat Bastard (who thankfully gets pretty limited screen time here) and is a straight up spoof of another famous Bond villain in Auric Goldfinger. Goldmember is a crazed hedonist Dutchman with a habit of picking peeling fragments of skin from his body (and eating it) as well as giving unwanted yet hilarious running commentaries while witnessing various conflicts between other characters in front of him in heavily accented broken english. Certainly not a bad comic villain at all, but whether he could literally replace Dr. Evil as the primary bad guy in the franchise is a question that will probably never be answered. But since the other members of the usual ensemble seem to not be all that important anymore (Wagner as Number Two is practically reduced to being an extra here although surely the payday must have been nice), the real masterstroke of new casting here was done with the role of Austinâs father Nigel (whom we come to understand is actually Englandâs greatest spy) and that would be none other than Michael Caine, whose being put in the role is significant for two reasons: 1) Caine in the 1960s had starred in his own series of spy films as a character named Harry Palmer and in playing that role had even worn a pair of glasses (as he does here) just like Austin does and 2) Caine himself was well known as being a famous and popular member of the real life Swinging London 60s Underground Counterculture Scene (as Austin had been portrayed as being in Part 1). Of course, rumor has it that SEAN CONNERY (former Bond) was offered the part, but that probably would have been too mindboggling to comprehend. Finally, in the tradition of there being a new Austin girl in each film in the series in the tradition of Elizabeth Hurley and Heather Graham (who filmed a cameo for this one that was deleted), we get Beyonce Knowles as Foxxy Cleopatra (heavily spoofing Pam Grierâs black action heroines), beautiful to look at but unfortunately rather lacking in acting chops, serving to remind us that when looking back at the comparatively bare bones charms of Part 1 that Hurley had really managed to bring some genuine warmth to that film that successfully offset the goofball antics of Austin and Dr. Evil. But this series has always been about the âpile on more characters as more movies are madeâ idea even as such a strategy almost comes at the expense of some of the more well liked characters, in particular here Scott Evil for whom it is attempted to put forth a major development involving the direction of his particular character, but so much time is spent elsewhere that it almost comes across as being an unimportant afterthought. The main plot involves Dr. Evil and Goldmember teaming up to utilize a giant tractor beam that will cause a giant meteor to crash into the Earth (which reflects the plot of Armageddon from a couple of years earlier yet no irony is applied here to that connection like it could have been), but the actual threat is almost like a non story element compared to the various character machinations including having Mini Me âswitching sidesâ and joining up with Austin and Yorkâs Basil Exposition to lead the final assault on Evilâs submarine. This involves changing up Mini Meâs appearance entirely as he dons a wig and his own pair of glasses to make him more of a clone of Austin this time in what would be Troyerâs last go in the part before his 2018 death from suicide via alcohol poisoning (i.e. he literally drank himself to death after having a long series of affairs with beautiful, normal sized women). Other new bits that have varying levels of success include a scene between Austin and a Japanese executive where he misreads the subtitles of what the man is saying to him since the subs are visible to both him and the audience, an extended flashback to British Spy Academy where we learn that not only were Austin and Dr. Evil roommates, but that Basil and Number Two (all of whom being played by younger actors) were also attendees as well in what seems to be a VERY lame attempt to spoof Harry Potterâs Hogwarts School and Dr. Evil and Mini Me in a maximum security prison where the two of them do a hip hop remake / rehash of Hard Knock Life from the musical Annie. BUT we also get a rehash of both the shadow silhouette bit showing something happening that appears to be worse than what it is AND the infamous bit where what appears to be a human sex organ in the sky is noticed by various random characters, both of which originated in Part 2. Just a reminder of how much the series (and Myersâ creativity) had run out of gas by this point, a sad development when one remembers the classic high points of Part 1 (which will always remain a classic) and even the laugh out loud hilarity of much of Part 2 (which still holds up very well) leading up to this one, by far the worst of the series and a poor attempt to replicate and recreate far too many key moments from what came before itâŚ
5/10