Review:Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me

When I saw the original Austin Powers, I was unimpressed. It was funny- better than recent Mike Meyers fare (Axe Murderer and WW2 were each mediocre IMHO) but it certainly wasn't setting the world on fire. With word of the sequel coming out, I watched the tape again. And again. And again. It grew on me a lot. And so I was quite excited when I went to the theater (Holland has 2 theaters: wouldn't ya know it, Austin Powers was shown in the crappy one) to see it, I went in open minded, and enjoyed the ride. Click below to read my take on it. Ok, here's the Plot Summary: Austin (Meyers) goes back to the 60s in a psychedelic VW to chase Dr. Evil (Meyers) who's evil henchman Fat Bastard (Meyers) stole Austin's "Mojo". Dr. Evil has a death ray, and the best charachters from the original (SCOTT! The Frau, Number 2, and even Mr. Bigglesworth, although in limited form) are back.

As with the original, the bad guys steal the show. Every time Dr. Evil's gang of baddies meets up in his hollowed out volcano fortress, get ready to laugh. Scott's charachter is expanded, and given a rival in the form of "Mini-Me", Dr. Evil's clone... 1/8th the size (complete with his own miniature kitty).

Austin is once again the least interesting of the charachters. He repeats many of the original jokes, and throws in a few new zingers that will get ya good. Dr. Evil is a little softer this time around, but still drop dead funny. Mini-Me is absolute genius. Truly offensive, and a total a riot. Almost every gag involving him got a huge laugh from the sold out theater I was in, and usually I was part of it.

And then there is the matter of Heather Graham- ah yes Heather, let me sing your praises. As Felicity Shagwell she performs quite well. With tight outfits and dirty innuendo absolutely perfect for Austin's counterpoint, she scores many points, and usually is the best part of any of the Austin Power scenes. She won't win an acadamy award, but she'll get your Mojo going, and squeeze a lot of laughs out of you.

So anyway, the summary: this is probably the second most hyped film of the season, but its worth the hype. Its not going to change the world, cause world peace, feed the homeless, or preach to you about anything. It will make numerous random low brow jokes about short people, fat people, poop, farting, sex, lesbianism, and involves lots of disobediant children. If you enjoy watching the bad guys sing commercials, and build fortresses with names like "Moon Unit Alpha" and "Moon Unit Zappa", well If thats your bag, you'll enjoy this film baby. If its not, go watch something else and save the bucks.

Austin Powers was better the second time around tho. I'm curious what this one will do for me if I see it again. But this movie is definitely gonna make a lot of money this summer. And it deserves it more than that other summer blockbuster does.

Comments

Frank Zappa Reference

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wanted to point out that "Moon Unit Zappa"
was the name of (the late (sniff)) Frank
Zappa's daughter. Somewhere I've got a 45 of
"valley girl" with her picture on the slipcover.
A treasure.

If everyone already knows this, moderate this post
into the basement.

-- cary

Heather Graham VS Elizabeth Hurley

[gavinhall]

Posted by JudgementX:

WARNING--DISCUSSES SOME PARTS OF MOVIE

Okay first off, I loved Austin Powers and I definetely love the sequel, but one thing that really bothered me was the writing off of Elizabeth Hurley as a fembot and then replacing Austin's counterpoint with Heather Graham. I mean I won't argue the fact that Heather Graham is hot as hell, but Hurley was definetely a better actress and played a better role at countering Austin's lines in the original. I realize that it was supposed to be a funny write-off with Vanessa being a Fembot and it allowed Austin to go back to swinging, but I just wish that they didn't kill Vanessa off. That way she could be in the next Austin Powers because she was one of the best parts of the first one. Part of me was kinda sad when she blew up (literally) after remember how funny and awesome she was in the original... sigh... But I'm sure that everyone just cares that Heather Graham is a hotty...but alas my heart goes out to Elizabeth Hurley who is definetely the more shagadelic babe. Comments anyone?

Somewhat disappointing

[ivarneli]

It looks like I'm pretty much alone on this one, but I really didn't like AP2 that much. It was about what I had expected, but it just wasn't as enjoyable to me as the first one. It kinda gave me the impression that everybody just got together for a weekend and threw together a movie. I know it's supposed to be like that, but I thought the general style of the first movie was better.

The characters didn't really seem to carry over from the first movie very well either. Dr. Evil seemed way too... competent in this movie, Austin seemed too incompetent, and Felicity doesn't even compare to Vanessa in the first one.

Then there were those other characters... I think Fat Bastard and Mini Me both give Jar Jar some strong competition for "Most Annoying Character of 1999".

Now, before you start flaming me, I just want to make a point... I didn't say I hated the movie. The jokes were wonderful... I think I laughed way more at this movie than I did at AP1 the first time I saw it. But the movie itself just didn't appeal to me... that's why I think the first one was better.

Improvisation

[prok]

Is it just me, or did Number 2 look like he was laughing his ass off when Dr. Evil was throwing the big globe in his face ?

It's almost like you were expecting a good story!

[grappler]

Austin Powers is a clever spoof on Bondish movies that seem to come out every year. Austin Powers is funny. Austin Powers is lowbrow, slapstick, and sometimes, witty to the point of genius.

Austin Powers is not meant to have any kind of engaging plot. Austin Powers does not care that Austin Powers is not meant to have any kind of engaging plot, and the makers make no attempt to hide this fact. Some movies will go to great lengths to try to fill holes in the plot, at the expense of hokiness. Austin Powers basically tells the audience point blank that it doesn't care. At all. It's that scene when Austin is going back in time and gets confused by the paradoxes that arise. He - and the audience - are told, and I quote, "enjoy the ride".

If you laughed more in this than the first, great! I did. I can't imagine why else anyone would want to see it if not to laugh.

Just my $0.000000002

Re:Please say it isn't true!

[Jburkholder]

Good God, then you haven't hear the rumor about LDC bring discussed for the Anakin Skywalker role in the next SW episode. Gag me.

My Two Cents...

[kronius]

I thought the movie was good, but there were problems. I loved a lot of the original jokes, but the COMMERCIALS gave away too many of them. Most of what the commercials didn't give away was stuff from the first movie.

I thought a lot of the "dated" jokes were funny, but they might hurt the movie's rewatchability in the long run. The movie was definitely entertaining and worth the money to go see if you enjoyed the first one. I just wish the commercials hadn't given so much away. I plan on seeing it again.


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