Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
The original Austin Powers movie back in 1997 must have really seemed like a long shot for success in Hollywoodâs eyes, with Wayneâs World star Mike Myers conjuring up a psychedelic era James Bond / spy spoof that even featured a number of faded stars from that era all in an attempt to make it work in the late 90s. Amazingly, it did just that, making a considerable profit (taking into account its low budget) at the box office before positive word of mouth caused it to absolutely explode in the secondary home video market, turning the Powers name into a pop culture phenomenon with several catchphrases becoming part of the modern (at the time) lexicon. Of course, it also didnât hurt that Myers (an ardent admirer of Peter Sellers and his ability to play multiple roles in one movie) took on the arduous task of playing both the hero (Austin himself with his unashamededly chauvinistic attitude) AND the villain, Dr. Evil, furthermore smartly making Dr. Evil into the more interesting (translation: funnier and more likable) of the two, taking the whole thing into overdrive in terms of popularity before a lame third film (Goldmember) and waning interest would leave it nearly forgotten ten years later. But naturally after the sprawling success of the first one, a sequel was more than well in order, and Myers knew that in many ways his audience just wanted more of the same, reuniting most of the main cast and even recycling a few bits from the original (a notoriously bad habit of his). Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington (who had married Austin at the end of Part 1) returned also only to be conveniently written out in the opening scene, allowing Myers to (as he has stated) follow in the Bond tradition of having a fresh new leading lady in each movie which now gives us Heather Graham as Felicity Shagwell, CIA operative who also seems to serve as an all around party girl (which suits Austin just fine). The rest of the main ensemble (Michael York as British Intelligence boss Basil Kensington, Robert Wagner sporting fresh burn scars as Number Two, Seth Green as rebellious son Scott Evil, Mindy Stering as the shrieking henchwoman Frau Farbissina, and Will Ferrell as bumbling assassin Mustafa, here subjected to an even more gruesome fate than in the original) all return to their expected places in the franchise here, but we also get three new (and well done) changeups. First, Myers adds in a new third character to his repertoire, a disgustingly obese operative named Fat Bastard which Myers seems to play under about fifty pounds of latex and for which much of the humor comes out of just how truly gross he really is even as he is subject to the occasional Myers moments of self indulgence that he is known for as a performer. Secondly, through the introduction of time travel to the story, we are treated to Wagnerâs eyepatch wearing Number Two being portrayed as a younger man and also being perfectly cast and played by Rob Lowe (no surprise that Lowe could manage an accurate Wagner impersonation since he once dated Wagnerâs daughter in real life and had developed the vocal style of imitating him even back then) which thus results in Lowe seamlessly carrying the bulk of the Number Two role in this film whereas Wagner has merely a short appearance at the beginning. Thirdly (and most popularly) is the introduction of Dr. Evil now having a midget âcloneâ whom he christens Mini-Me and is played by Verne Troyer, thus giving this little person actor a seemingly never ending cottage industry career off of this one role while getting many of the filmâs funniest moments. Indeed, the Powers series was always at its best when going for original bits (many of which were derived from Dr. Evilâs insecurity issues) and not by going to the dried up well for pop culture references that date the films themselves squarely in the era from whence they came. The story opens with Dr. Evil returning from deep space cryogenic freeze only to reemerge and announce his return to the world on an episode of Jerry Springer where he appears with Scott in perhaps the filmâs funniest bit (âIâve got your hood!â âThe world is mine!â) as he even gets into a brawl with Springer himself. From there on out, itâs just a matter of him getting his crew back together and then getting his time machine working, first going back to 1969 and stealing Austinâs âmojoâ from his cryogenic chamber at that time and then placing a giant laser on the moon (at a time when we were barely figuring out how to get there ourselves) in order to hold the world for ransom through making demands to the current U.S. President (a cameoing Tim Robbins who for all intensive purposes should be playing Richard M. Nixon although no direct reference is ever made to that), declaring that the laser will utterly destroy every U.S. city unless he is paid $100 Billion dollars. As for Austin, heâs stuck fighting off assassins again and trying to get with Grahamâs sexy Felicity before taking off to the moon himself for the big final battle. In terms of what clearly hits and what misses here in terms of the comedy, itâs clear that the whole Dr. Evil / Scott, father / son, love / hate relationship (which may have been the driving force of the humor in the first film) has absolutely no traction here whatsoever (save for the revealing of how Scott was really conceived) while much of the Mini-Me stuff scores some major points and even the occasional bullying of Number Two (now played by Lowe) by Dr. Evil results in some pretty funny moments. That brings us to the off and on comedic impact of the Fat Bastard character, given plenty of steam by his openly stated willingness to eat babies if he were hungry enough to other moments where he is just given a little bit too much to say and wears out his welcome quickly. Then there is the funny or not so funny dynamic (depending on your mileage) of Dr. Evil being all too painfully aware (seeing as he is from Belgium) that he is woefully unhip and thus spouting almost randomly various catchphrases (most of which are related to hip hop) in a pathetic attempt to make himself seem âcoolâ (something which at least allows Greenâs Scott to mercilessly make fun of him) even when talking to Robbinsâ President who is based in 1969 and has no idea what he is talking about or even referring to. Some of the newer gags (which sadly were recycled for the third movie) include a rapid fire series of phallic references, a silhouette gag that wrongly gives the impression of what seems to be going on and a smattering of cameos from some big name stars which give the whole enterprise some strong and much needed momentum but overall shows that the Powers series was more or less just a grab bag of incredibly ridiculous moments, bits, and visual and / or verbal puns (we once again get the routine of a female enemy spy whose name is that of a risquĂ© double entendre) of which an overwhelming majority of them do work in a funny way while others could have benefitted from having had a little more deep thought put into them instead of plundering from the plethora of ideas that were utilized for the first movie (notwithstanding the fact that the ORIGINAL Austin Powers movie really is one of the best comedies of that decade). Of course, the overabundance of repetitiveness is what wound up sinking the third movie into the swamp and essentially killing the franchise (even as twenty years later Myers is said to be hard at work actually developing a fourth movie in the series). Nonetheless, this second film in the series DID succeed in what it set out to do which was giving the fans more of what they wanted and pushing still yet further the Powers franchise into the stratosphere of pop culture acceptance for its time and while much of it still seems funny today (always gotta love the bit where a henchman is set up by having Graham expose her boobs to him, compelling him to cry out âMommy!â and then fall into a pit of molten lava), one could already see just how the tenets of a brilliantly executed comedy concept was also seemingly flashing out before our very eyes due to lazy and / or obvious writing (Myers has been known to jokingly state how he wonders when the âtalent policeâ will come and take him away) which means that these films should be taken for what they are: well made and suitably goofy entertainment that was an incredibly popular product of the time in which they were madeâŠ
8/10