Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
a review by Christian Pyle
For once I can't tell you how a movie BEGINS because it would be a spoiler. Suffice to say that if, like me, you saw Heather Graham in the trailer for "The Spy Who Shagged" Me and wondered, "Hey, what happened to Austin's wife?," your question will be answered.
What I can say is that Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) returns to earth and hatches a plan to neutralize his nemesis, unfrozen 60's superspy Austin Powers (also Myers). Evil goes back in time to 1969 and has henchman Fat Bastard (Myers again, getting a chance to use his Scottish accent) steal the mojo from the frozen Austin. Along the way, Dr. Evil also decides to set up a giant laser on the moon to destroy the earth. (No, he doesn't have a reason-just run with it.) Mojoless, Austin follows Dr. Evil to 1969 and teams up with CIA agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) to foil Evil's scheme.
As Austin tries to contemplate the paradoxes of time travel, he exclaims, "I'm going all cross-eyed!" His boss, Basil Exposition (Michael York), cautions Austin to not worry about it and just have fun. Then Basil looks at the camera and says, "That goes for you all, too." Good advice. The various plot twists, cameos, and gags won't hold up under any scrutiny-but it's great fun.
Even more so than the original "Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me" is intentionally dumb but making a dumb movie on purpose is harder than it looks. (Check out any of the recent work by Leslie Nielsen or Mel Brooks, if you don't believe me.) Even though the jokes are juvenile (expect farts, penis-shaped rockets, and Austin drinking a stool sample), the timing is skillful. Most of all, Myers manages to make both Austin and Dr. Evil believable enough to accept as characters and stupid enough to laugh at. (On the other hand, Fat Bastard is just gross. I haven't been this disgusted by a character since Pizza the Hut in "Spaceballs").
Dr. Evil is a much funnier character than Austin, and the bad guy gets more screen time in this outing. His posse is back: Number Two (played by both Robert Wagner and Rob Lowe), Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling), and Scott Evil (Seth Green). They're joined by a miniature clone of Dr. Evil, Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), who generates more than half of the laughs in the movie. I thought Scott's running commentary on his father's stupid plans was the funniest thing in the first "Austin", and I'm glad that it continues in the sequel. (There's a hilarious scene early in "Spy" where Scott and Dr. Evil go on "Jerry Springer." Topic: "My Dad is Evil and He Wants to Take Over the World").
There's cameos aplenty (many of them in the wrong decade). As themselves: Springer, Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Woody Harrelson, and Willie Nelson. Kristen Johnston (from "Third Rock") plays a Russian assassin, Ivana Humpalot. Tim Robbins (one of the last people I expected to see in this movie) plays the president in '69. Elizabeth Hurley (Vanessa Kensington Powers) and Will Ferrell (Mustafa) briefly reprise their roles from "Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery." I hoped that Mimi Rogers would turn up as well, but we can't have everything.
Speaking of the previous Powers, you'll enjoy "The Spy Who Shagged Me" more if you've seen "Austin Powers" recently. And the first ten minutes will make a lot more sense.
A brief digression: Now that "The Spy Who Shagged Me" has joined the ranks of sequels that measure up to their progenitors, an unbreakable law of film physics requires that the next movie in the series be a disappointment. Really, every time a sequel is as good as or better than the previous film in the series, it is followed by a third movie that is a bore. Consider these fine sequels: "Superman II," "The Empire Strikes Back," "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (in fact, the "even-number rule" of "Trek" movies-only the even-numbered ones are good-is the best proof of this unbreakable law), "The Karate Kid Part II," "Lethal Weapon 2," "Back to the Future Part II," "The Godfather Part II." All good sequels, all followed by disappointing third parts. Can anyone think of an exception to the rule?
Grade: B+
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle
Read my reviews and others at the Mad Review: http://www.wpd.net/madreview/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews