Austin
Powers: The Third Time Is the CharmAustin
Powers: The Third Time Is the CharmOK, I have a confession to make. I'm really not that big an Austin Powers fan. I thought the character was funny the first couple of times I encountered him, but then the novelty wore off. I just don't think there's that much to the character, played by Mike Myers. I know he's beloved for his randy ways and naughty humor. But I just kind of see him as rather shapeless and even boring at this point, and I really don't find the "Yeah, baby!" shtick all that funny.
HOWEVER, I find the villains of the Austin Powers movies VERY funny, consistently interesting, and their shtick always welcome. They are the reasons I look forward to each Austin Powers movie, and the new Austin Powers in Goldmember is no exception. I love Dr. Evil's (Myers) egomaniacal ways, his murdering of pop culture references, and his deep and abiding love for his midget clone, Mini-Me (Verne Troyer). I can't get enough of Scott Evil (the incomparable Seth Green) and his smart-mouthed demeanor and bickering byplay with his father. Then, there's Fat Bastard (Myers), the obese Scottish henchman of Dr. Evil; Number Two (Robert Wagner), the ultra-serious lieutenant who does his best to carry out Dr. Evil's orders, no matter how far-fetched they are; and Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling), the Nazi-like whip cracker always at Dr. Evil's side.
Here is how I see the Austin Powers flicks. I really liked the first one (Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery). I wasn't very impressed with its 1999 sequel, The Spy Who Shagged Me (especially when seeing it a second time). And now the third one? Well, despite the repetition of several gags from the first two flicks, I'm pleased to say this one is a vast improvement. It's still really hit-or-miss. There are a few too many jokes about urinating (the best piece of advice I can give you this entire week is to go to the bathroom BEFORE seeing this movie! Trust me on this and thank me later. There is a LOT of peeing in this flick!) But, at least, it has one of the funniest gags I've ever seen on urination ... and I do mean "gag" literally.
Goldmember also has a healthy helping of the bad guys. It's a little amazing how Myers and his director pal Jay Roach keep re-assembling everyone every few years to go have fun. The cast looks like it had a blast making Austin Powers in Goldmember, and their goofy good play is contagious. The sequel centers on Austin Powers tracking down a new co-hort of Dr. Evil, a sun-worshipping Euroswinger from the '70s named Goldmember (played, of course, by Myers). He is part of Dr. Evil's plan to build a tractor beam that will pull an asteroid to Earth, melt the polar ice caps with liquid hot magma, and turn the planet into one big waterworld. New to the recurring cast is Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child who plays Foxy Cleopatra, a former girlfriend of Austin's and sexy American agent out to bring down Goldmember for killing her partner months earlier. Michael Caine also appears as Nigel Powers, Austin's estranged father who has been kidnapped by Goldmember and transported back in time to 1975.
The really great jokes in Goldmember I can't talk about. They are so funny and so surprising (depending on how many plot spoilers you've actually read on the Internet in recent months) that it would be very wrong to ruin them. The studio even gave the critics at my recent preview screening small posters and buttons featuring Dr. Evil asking us to "Zip it!" when it comes to revealing plot spoilers in our reviews. Suffice to say, expect some really big cameos and some very funny gags involving Dutch people, Japanese people, prison inmates, and killer sharks.Mini Me again steals the show, and Fred Savage delights as a good-guy mole who has infiltrated Dr. Evil's organization. What makes the former Wonder Years star funny in this movie? Well,let's just say, he could easily pass for Cindy Crawford's brother and ("Holy Mole-y!") leave it at that.
So, what doesn't work? The Goldmember character is just a gross,unfunny disaster. I liked the fact that he kept his skin peelings in a compact. But for the most part, the character is just weird. It would have been better had Myers actually spoofed a different Bond villain from the past the way he does with Dr. Evil (a dead-on parody of Connery-era nemesis, Blofeld). I also thought more could have been done with the Nigel Powers character, especially considering the fantastic comic timing Caine has shown in past roles like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The movie is almost too stuffed. And I gotta say, Austin Powers really has become the least interesting character in the Austin Powers films. Several scenes are downright embarrassing, particularly a desperate-for-laughs sequence early on when Austin tries to score with two Asian twins named Fook Mi and Fook Yoo.
In the end, though, Austin Powers in Goldmember has more than enough laughs for me to recommend it. I just wish I could be more specific when discussing it. Oh well. Despite its flaws, it's a swingin' good time.
Austin Powers in Goldmember is rated PG-13 for scatalogical humor, language, and cartoonish violence.
AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY. The 1997 original is still the best of the three. It's much more of a dead-on spoof of the Connery spy thrillers and has several bits that still hold up today. "That's not your mother, baby, that's a man!" "Can't I get some sharks with some friggin' laser beams?!" "I've got a gun in my room. I can go get it and be back here in 30 seconds. BOOM! We can do them together. It will be fun." "Scott, you just don't get it, do you?" Dr. Evil recalling his upbringing. Lots of classic material. And you truly can't beat Elizabeth Hurley for sheer, babe-alicious laughs and thrills.She got the joke much better than the strutting Heather Graham and the out-of-her-league Knowles ever could. MY GRADE: B+.
AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME. This 1999 sequel made nearly four times what the first one made at the box office, but it was four times less clever. For my money, it never really recovered from dispatching Hurley in the opening moments. And for every gag that was fresh and original, there was one that was just repeated or recycled from the first one. Also, there was an increased reliance on poop and fart jokes. Still, the creation of Mini Me remains a masterstroke (every time he leaps across the table at Scott is just priceless), the Evils on Jerry Springer was great fun, and I still rather like Fat Bastard. MY GRADE:C+.
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