Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com Member: Online Film Critics Society
***1/2 out of four
"Whereever we go... There we are."
Starring Mike Meyers, Heather Graham, Seth Green, Verne Troyer. Rated PG-13 (but should be R).
When a someone journeys to the theater to see a comedy, he always risks having to sit through inanity such as what we recently saw in films like EDtv and Office Space. It really is too bad that comedies are so hit- and-miss, because when a moviegoer goes in a theater expecting to be amused, it really is a shame when the alleged comedy fails to deliver. But weep not, dear readers, because the latest comedy out of the Hollywood movie mill is nothing less than a sure bet. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is one of the funniest things I've had the pleasure to see in a long time; a completely looney, delightful parody of the often pretentious James Bond flicks. If all comedies (or even half; or - - what am I saying? -- even a fifth of them) could be this consistently hysterical, I would take up residence at my local multiplex.
Even more to this movie's credit is the fact that it is a sequel to the 1997 sleeper/cult hit Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The original came out of nowhere; it was a low-budget, eccentric movie that many expected to flop like a Leslie Nielsen parody. All of a sudden it was being quoted by teenagers all over America. Ironically, Powers' "Yeeeeah baby, yeah!" has almost become an icon of the late 90s.
Thus another installment was inevitable, but it's also undoubtedly welcome. The Spy Who Shagged Me is one of the most unrestrained, over- the-top comedies I have ever seen in my entire life. It brings back most of the characters from its predecessor (even if only briefly) and adds new ones. Austin Powers (Mike Myers), a swinging hipster from the 60s transported into the 90s has to go back to his own time to get back his mojo (oh, you'll figure it out), which Dr. Evil (Meyers again) has stolen. He enlists the help of a gorgeous secret agent Felicity Shagwell (now that his prior sidekick Vanessa has been properly disposed of in a hilarious opening sequence), played without much distinguishable gusto by Heather Graham and together they go back to the 60s to defeat Dr. Evil yet again.
Surprisingly, the real star is Dr. Evil rather than Austin. He gets most of the screen time because he was so popular in the first movie. Perhaps this is true because he is portrayed and written so affectionately. Instead of being the scheming, villainous mad scientist we might expect from a character like this he is a bumbling, often sweet mad scientist wannabe.
The Spy Who Shagged Me has much of the same stuff we saw in the original, but that's okay by me because the original left us wanting more. By the time that one was over we haven't had nearly our share of shag jokes, crude puns and Powers' antics and this sequel satisfies our appetites. Even by its conclusions, I'm still not sure I've had my fill of bits like "Do you smoke after sex?" "I don't know, baby, I never looked."
This may seem awfully immature of me, but understand that the Austin Powers series, unlike most of the crap Hollywood feeds us these days, is genuinely funny. I don't know if I've ever laughed harder at any movie than I did during the Jerry Springer send up or the indubitably hilarious "Just the Two of Us" rendition by Dr. Evil and his new miniature clone named "Mini-me".
I don't have any pretensions that this is particularly smart social satire or anything of the sort. Indeed there is little beyond the joy a viewer feels when he sees something that is able to entertain him as much as this movie did. But as far as I'm concerned, that is enough. ©1999 Eugene Novikov ‰
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