Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

reviewed by
Chad Polenz


Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Chad'z rating: ***1/2 (out of 4 = very good) 1999, PG-13, 95 minutes [1 hour, 35 minutes] [comedy] Starring: Mike Myers (Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard), Heather Graham (Felicity Shagwell), Seth Green (Scott Evil), Michael York (Basil Exposition); written by Mike Myers, Michael McCullers; produced by John S. Lyons, Demi Moore, Mike Myers, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd; directed by M. Jay Roach.

Seen June 14, 1999 at 7:45 p.m. at Crossgates Cinema 18 (Guilderland, N.Y.), theater #15, with Shawn O'Shea for free using my Hoyts season pass. [theater rating: ****: excellent seats, sound and picture].

I'm not sure if anyone else besides me has actually read my `Disclaimer' on my web page, but it's basically a list of rules I set for myself in how I view movies and write my reviews. Well, it's not often that I break my own rules, but in order to properly analyze and review `Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,' I must say that it's a film I've formed an opinion on based on seeing it four times and also as to how the audiences with whom I saw it reacted. Those two rules are just part of my own theory on film and film criticism. I believe a movie should be judged by how it seems to you the first time you see it. If there's a lot of subtlety and complex storylines going on, you should be able to follow and comprehend them all on first viewing. Also, I believe when you see a film for the first time it should have the same effect on you whether you're watching it in a cinema, on home video, alone or with a large audience. Of course that's just some of my `idealist film critic' theories to establish my integrity, psychologists and sociologists would probably argue otherwise on some of these points (and other critics might too). How it all relates to my take on this film is in these two ways: firstly, I saw it four times and loved it the first three times and just plain liked it the fourth time; and secondly, I saw it with large audiences who laughed hysterically the first three times and with a semi-large audience who laughed a lot, but not as much as the other larger audiences. You might be thinking what's the point of all this since I've written four paragraphs and haven't even discussed the film itself yet. Well dear readers, the point is this: `Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me' is in and of itself a very, very, very funny and enjoyable movie, but what makes it better than being a just plain good flick is the fact that it does hold up on repeated viewings and that half the fun of seeing it is the atmosphere of the audience - a large group of people who, just like you, have plunked down a few beans to stare at a screen for 95 minutes and just have a good time: that's exactly the reason the entertainment industry exists. It became clear to me just 20 minutes into this film that writing a review of it that accurately summed up and analyzed the film would be difficult, if not impossible. It's a comedy that fires off the jokes, the gags, the zaniness and the fun like an Uzi fires bullets. It does have some general comedic styles to it but even I would have a hard time trying to define them all. Satirical? Yes. Witty? Yes. Gross? Yes. Original? Yes. Stupid? Yes (but in a good way). To quickly go over the premise, this is the sequel to 1997's `Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery,' a funny farce about a British spy-guy named Austin Powers (Myers), who is frozen in 1967 and returns 30 years later to battle his nemesis Dr. Evil (also Myers). Powers is basically James Bond's dorky little brother - he's not suave, he's not attractive (those bad teeth jokes consistently work every time), he's not always playing with a full deck, yet his charm lies in Myers' ability to make the guy so freaking funny. Since this is a summer blockbuster flick, it's not surprising the tone of the film isn't quite as smart as the original, and that the comedy comes in a rapid-fire succession to cater to the modern audience's short attention span. Normally, I'd have a problem with that (consider 1998's `Armageddon'), but since everything we get here is so unbelievably funny it's forgivable for the most part (Myers' screenplay may get all the jokes right, but his execution of plot and story could definitely use some work). The story goes like this: Dr. Evil, who froze himself and launched himself into space at the end of the last movie returns to Earth only two years later to hatch another scheme to, well, be evil. Dr. Evil realizes he can't beat Austin Powers because he lacks `mojo' and decides to travel back to 1969 to steal Powers' mojo while he was still cryogenically frozen. Powers and his boss, Basil Exposition (York) at the Ministry of Defence, realize this and develop a time machine of their own and thus Powers goes back in time to get back his mojo and stop Dr. Evil's latest scheme which involves shooting a giant laser at Earth from the moon. That's pretty much all there is to the actual plot of the film which amazingly allows for such funny and outrageous situations as well as the occasional spoof and satire. Here's where my aforementioned problem lies: how do I even begin to breakdown and analyze the comedy without leaving out any of the best and most important jokes? To list only a few would be an injustice for fear of making them seem only mildly funny on paper (or on a computer screen as is the case here). How do I convince the non-viewer of the film's high entertainment value? I guess I can sum it all up by saying Myers set out to make a fun movie and must have had a lot of fun in the process. Some comedies today are cruel and cynical and are based on shock value and testing society's ethics. Here, everything is done in good spirits, so that even when the comedy goes to the extreme, you can tell the filmmakers were having a great time producing it all. For a movie with jokes about accidentally drinking fecal matter; two freaky, ugly people having sex; the giant butt crack of a 500-pound man covered in grease and filth; and eye-illusion silhouette jokes about the insertion and removal of things from an anus, it's shocking but not too shocking. It's childish and stupid, but shown in a whole new light and is surprisingly funny. With this film Myers shows us a fresh face of mainstream comedy I've not seen since `Wayne's World' in 1992. Almost everything is a tongue-in-cheek reference to something else, whether is be within the film (such as Myers looking directly into the camera and telling the audience not to worry about the possible plot holes or how England looks in no way like southern California), or at modern society (such as Dr. Evil making his appearance on Earth known not by launching missiles at the Kremlin, but by appearing on `Jerry Springer'). The modern society comedy is simply brilliant and really does go a long way to show how some things that might seem ordinary to some people can really be funny taken out of context. Dr. Evil's entire persona seems to be based on this idea here, as we see him rapping, seducing one of his female partners in crime, and just being a big cartoony villain. It's probably safe to say that he's one of the most likable villains in movie history and certainly one of the funniest, and we still never doubt his malice (after all, his name is Evil and he went to evil medical school). After seeing `Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,' for the first time, I read one some Internet newsgroups posts from people that hated it telling how they couldn't possibly understand how all the people around them laughed so much at what they considered rubbish. Technically, I could understand someone not liking the sense of humor the film conveys, but I can't imagine seeing this with an audience and not being swept up in the fun of it all. It's something I believe is so true in the case of that if you don't like it, I'd say there's something wrong with you.

--------------------------------- Please visit Chad'z Movie Page - over 220 new and old movies reviewed in-depth, not just blind ratings and blather capsules.

Member of The O.F.C.S. (Online Film Critics Society)


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