AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME **1/2 (out of four) -a review by Bill Chambers ( shagme@filmfreakcentral.net )
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I can't wait to revisit Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery failed to light up my life the first time I saw it; I felt no urge afterwards to utter Austin's catchphrases, among them "Yeah, baby, yeah" and "Shag-adelic!" Subsequent viewings of the film somehow improved its comedy; by the time I received Austin Powers... on DVD for Christmas, I was a full-fledged fan. The Spy Who Shagged Me features as many guffaws as its predecessor, but I left the screening feeling again amused but unenamoured.
This sequel picks up almost immediately where the first picture left off. After the luminous Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) makes a startling revelation to Austin (Myers) during their honeymoon, the superspy is off once again to do battle with Dr. Evil (also Myers). This time, the bald, scarred, pale madman has devised a time machine, which he uses to go back to the sixties. There, with the aid of his pint-size clone Mini-Me (Troyer) and an obese bagpiper (who eats babies) named Fat Bastard (Myers, in repulsive make-up), he locates Austin Powers' cryogenically frozen body and steals his mojo. Nineties Austin is rendered impassive to espionage and randy women, so he travels thirty years into the past to get his groove back. At his old pad, he hooks up with sexy Felicity Shagwell (heart melting, doe-eyed Graham), and together they search for Dr. Evil's volcanic lair. Despite much crass humour that follows (including an endless anal sex jape), The Spy Who Shagged Me is ultimately sweet. The film covers no new ground in terms of homage to bygone spy thrillers, and very little of the humour is innovative, but its genteel tone smoothes over the laughless bumps.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is only casually interested in telling us a complete story. Mostly, it's a showcase for Myers' range and improvisational skills. (Duh.) Austin, Dr. Evil, and Fat Bastard are such distinct characters that one will not likely scan for split-screen lines when any combination of them is on camera together.
"Distinct," however, doesn't necessarily mean "rich." Austin, for all his signature attributes (the rotting teeth, the velvet suits, the soundbite-ready dialogue), sends-up popular British TV and movie secret agents who were never taken seriously in the first place. Watch a swinger like "The Avengers"' John Steed (played with pursed-lip winkingness by Patrick Macnee in several incarnations) or the mod criminals Steed pursued in action and you'll see prototypes for Austin Powers rather than ripe targets for parody. Austin the man is a one-note joke whose only real appeal is his promiscuity-it's been too long since we've had a hero who lives and breathes for sex. (Aside: a naked Austin once again prances around buck naked, but his private parts aren't so cleverly disguised in The Spy Who Shagged Me-in fact, digital trickery appears to have erased them altogether.)
In other words, Austin is amusing but Dr. Evil is the star of this show. Much funnier than Austin's non-sequitor gags, such as a lame montage involving the Queen's guards set to "I'm a Believer," are Dr. Evil's non-sequitor gags. It is through the desperately uncool Dr. Evil that Myers and company skewer: the Jerry Springer show (in two very funny sequences-be sure to stay through the end credits); 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau remake (Dr. Evil and Mini-Me perform a hilarious piano duet of Joan Osborne's "One of Us"); Jerry Maguire; time travel movies; and, of course, James Bond. There are also amusing subplots involving Dr. Evil's sampling of Austin's mojo and the strained relationship between the doctor and his logic-prone son, Scott (Green). (As before, Scott is constantly told to shut up by his father, here in umpteen variations on "zip it." My favourite: "Ladies and gentlemen of the court, exzipit ‘A.'")
The audience I watched it with cheered the antics of both Austin and Dr. Evil. (Perhaps I will, too, one day.) Based on crowd reaction, The Spy Who Shagged Me will see smashing box office returns. While I have reservations about recommending it, I would never begrudge it of success.
-June, 1999
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