MONDAY MORNING MOVIE WATCHER
This is the debut of my film reviews here on this ng. Any portion of it is considered public domain with attribution, so feel free to post it where ever. I'm between web page hosts right now, but I will post the new home for the reviews when I find one.
*NOTE* "Monday Morning Movie Watcher is an informal review that takes all facets of the movie experience into effect, including crowd reaction, anticipation for the film, assorted "hype" surrounding the film, and ultimately what the box office and overall reaction for the film was after the initial weekend of release. In other words, I'm not trying to be Pauline Kael here people, just a product of late 20th century mass-media pop culture."
"Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (Released June 11, 1999)
Caught the sequel to Austin Powers at the AMC Academy in Greenbelt, MD. Since the theater is next door to a college town, my companion and I caught a late matinee in fear of a sell-out that evening.
Like most AMC theaters, this one relies on a very loud sound system to compensate for a lack of a dynamic stereo set-up, but I've found it to be a good place to watch a film.
A fairly large crowd for a Friday matinee rolled in, filling the seats (and the film's mostly young male demographics) well.
THE TRAILERS:
"Big Daddy" - The Sandler movie looks to be a jump back towards his "Wedding Singer" success. Having now seen this trailer a bunch of times, I have a new concern about the film -- what if the trailer's all its got?
"The Iron Giant" - Very highly anticipated by those in the know, but an unknown quantity for those in today's audience. I love the design of the Giant, and the film looks like a nice take on the "boy finds freak" story. But this may suffer the same fate as every other non-Disney offering. The reaction from the crowd was less than thrilling. I just can't see kids getting that enthused over this film after what should be a jolt of excitement from "Tarzan."
"Detroit Rock City" - a nice trailer that seems to suggest a cross between "Dazed and Confused" and a road movie. It's got a nice feel to it, looks good, and might be good nostalgia for those who can remember the 70's.
"Wild Wild West" - Bad, bad, trailer. But the Will Smith song is slowly selling this thing.
THE FILM:
It was funny. Very funny. The same kind of funny as "There's Something About Mary": a few funny scenes sandwiched between hilarious comedy bits, sprinkled with gobs of gross-out humor.
But not as good as the first one. The shine is off the premise. It played like "Ace Ventura 2", as a series of "greatest hits" catch phrases integrated in with new, very funny scenes.
Myers, in writing the new film, seems to have figured out what his audience deduced from the original: that Dr. Evil, not Austin Powers, is the interesting, breakout character. So he gives Evil all the good lines and plays him with twice the veracity as he does Powers.
And that's part of the problem. Myers has boiled the hero down to his barest parts: (and no, not his twig and berries - his essentials) a series of catch phrases and mannerisms that seems to be there just to string along the comedy bits. On the other hand, he's taken the best character of the first film, Evil, and made him into an over the top parody of...well, of himself.
Evil was a clever send-up of Donald Plesance's Blofeld from the Bond pictures, and really every other diabolical enemy. It was a fresh take on a subject ripe for parody, just as Ace Ventura was a send-up of super detective/cops.
But just like in "Ace 2," the character is imploded. All of the hilarious satire on the original subject matter is used for dumbed down laughs. Dr. Evil is less a insightful parody than he is an over-the-top clown. It's Wayne Campbell as Dr. Evil, and it's a bit of a let down. After such a well-crafted character stole the first film, to see him jump out of character just to ham it up leaves one wondering if Myers had simply exhausted the subject.
Not to say this ham isn't tasty. Dr. Evil is still the funniest thing in the film. His lines hold up over the duration of two films (not so Powers) and he participates in the film's single funniest bit: The Evils appearing on Jerry Springer.
As for the new additions to the cast, the most highly anticipated, and rightfully so, is Mini-Me, Evil's tiny clone. He is worth the hype and steals every scene he's in. The battle between him and Powers should enrage little persons advocates, but it is priceless.
The introduction of Mini-Me opens the door for a rel comedic oppertunity Myers fumbles in the film. Part of the great fun that the original provided was supplied by the dysfunctional relationship between Dr. and Scott Evil. Here, the subject of Scott's reaction to and the nature of the relationship bewteen Dr. Evil and his pint-sized clone. But the family rift is sqwandered with some "He tried to kill me" jokes and the film's low-point: an awkward, completely out-of-character and momentum killing parody of Will Smith's ode to his son, "Just the two of us." It's another in a series of examples where Myers has come up with a humerous idea, but the execution in the film, and the character that is burdened by the gag, is a letdown.
One concept that seems to work is Myers as Fat Bastard, a really bizarre creation. A grotesque Scotsman who eats babies. Weird, but funny. This character lets Myers explore the darker, more obscure side of his humor that was on display in "So I Married an Ax Murderer" and his less quoted work on "SNL."
As for Heather Graham, well, she's shagolicious. She literally looks sexier in each progressive scene, but there simply isn't any chemistry at all between her and Powers. While Ms. Kennsington and Austin had a bit of an emotional click, Felicity goes into the relationship worshiping Powers. With such a lothario as Powers, a little courtship goes a long way towards building an interesting relationship.
Maybe it's character underdevelopment or just the "american" nature of Felicity, but something just doesn't click here. We know Austin will end up with the girl (as Hurley's Ms. Kennsington is hilariously dispatched early). We just don't know why he would.
Hurley's early withdraweral brings us to another subject I'm a bit unsure of, and that's Myers' winking acknoledgement that the film's plot is unnecessessary. Part of the charm of the Bond films is that no matter how perposterious the scheme of the bad guy, Bond plays it straight, gets the girl and saves the day. The first film spoofed that by asking why the villain just doesn't kill the hero. Now, we are told the plot is stupid, we are told the villain is stupid, and we are stupid to enjoy it all.
But that's where the film falters. It forgets what made the first film so special: the relationship between Hurley and Myers, the fish-out-of-water scenario and the sharp satire of spy films. The film hits all the right marks, but as the lights cames up, I wiped the tears of laughter from my eyes and felt the same way I felt after Ace 2, Naked Gun 2 and Ghostbusters 2: I laughed, I cried, but I didn't see much I didn't catch the first time.
THE AFTERMATH:
The crowd ate it up. The entire experience really did remind me of "Mary" in the sense that the very funny parts had the audience laughing so loudly that you miss the next piece of dialogue.
>From the grosses, the country ate it up, dethroning, as many of us thought it might, "Star Wars" as the top movie in the country.
Next weekend will be interesting. I don't know how much repeat viewing this one will have. The jokes are pretty obvious, and many are funnier when you just repeat them in conversation rather than see them on the screen.
Two more thoughts:
1. The reviews have ranged all over the place. One thing is certain - this movie does make you laugh. How hard, or how satisfying the experience will be, depends on the viewer.
2. Calls have come for this film to be an "R." Idiotic! Double talk and gross-out humor are squarely a PG-13 characteristic. Let's try and salvage whatever merit the current ratings system has and not overdue it.
Greg Wyshynski The Clerk Jester
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