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.