with Heather Graham, Seth Green
I would prefer to call to this film as The Spy Who Bored Me, but who am I to criticise the second biggest film of the year?
I didn't like Austin Powers in the first film and he annoyed me even more in this one, but I do like Dr Evil and his son Scott Evil (Seth Green from the Buffy tv series). I went to see this film just to see their interactions and was not disappointed by them. To make the Evil family more dysfunctional this time around, they have added Minime, a vertically challenged clone of Dr Evil. You might notice in the ads that Dr Evil features heavily, so maybe I am not the only one that finds him the most entertaining character.
The basic story? Austin travels back in time to battle his archnemesis who has stolen his mojo. Strangely enough, Austin without his mojo is the same as Austin with his mojo, so what is all the fuss about? Elizabeth Hurley is killed off early to be replaced by scantily clad, CIA agent Heather Graham, and Mike Myers does an impersonation of an obese Billy Connolly as Fat Bastard.
There has been a massive amount of hype for this film, and of course most of the funny moments in the film you will have seen already. In the first half hour you see most of the segments we have seen on ads and in the previews, but I still found the funny parts funny, so that didn't matter, and there were extra bits to amuse me. The Jerry Springer segment is hilarious, and they managed to keep one brilliant piece of scripting out of the ads which is surprising. It involves Dr Evil's phallic spaceship being tracked, but I won't tell you what happens.
If you have seen the first film you will be familiar with Austin's style of humour. Think of Carry On, Frankie Howard etc and you will understand. I find the character annoying, and his "Oh, Baby" slogan doesn?t excite me like it did some other patrons in the cinema. But the Evil family were a delight whenever they were onscreen, they had all the best lines. I think Austin was missing his false teeth at the end of the film, and I do love continuity flaws.
The film is packed with references to other movies. Dr Evil does a Darth Vader impression, Austin Powers watches In Like Flint (a genuine, sixties spy spoof starring James Coburn), Dr Evil does a take on Linda Blair in The Exorcist, and the list goes on. Work them out for yourself.
And remember, if the coffee smells nutty, don't drink it.
sebastian niemand
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read niemand's teenflick write-up in Jawbreaker
read niemand's review of the Matrix