I confess I have not see the original "Austin Powers" film and after seeing this monotonous, joyless sequel, I can't say I am overjoyed at the prospect. That is not to say that this is a bad film - there are moments of great black humor - but it is too long, disjointed, gross, and silly to make me want to get involved in any future Austin Powers adventures.
The film starts off well with hairy-chested, 60's reject Austin (Mike Myers) having a romp in the hay with a beautiful Elizabeth Hurley. It turns out she is a Fem-Robot and fires bullets from her nipples!!! Then we are treated to a hysterical, off-the-wall dance number with Austin's derriere serving as the butt of jokes, no pun intended. Then there is the mysterious Dr. Evil (Mike Myers, again) who is soft-spoken and fights with a Klu-Klux Klan member at a Jerry Springer show. His dastardly plans are to go back in time to the 1960's and steal Austin's mojo - his forceful sexual prowess in liquid form! Why Dr. Evil wants it, and plans on destroying Washington, D.C. with a death ray from a "Death Star," I am not sure.
Austin's shenanigans with the beautiful and sexy spy Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) make up for some of the film's dead spots. There is an uncomfortably unfunny Scottish henchman named Fat Bastard (an unrecognizable Mike Myers) who smells and humps and thumps like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The joke involving his feces is as grossly underimagined as you might think, but this character quickly grows tiresome and has none of the spark of Myer's Scottish father in the underrated "So I Married an Axe Murderer."
Heather Graham seems to have been on a slump since her success with "Boogie Nights," and here she is bland and seemingly unfit for the crazy universe she is in. She looks bored each time she shares a scene with Austin. When Graham dulls my senses in a movie, you know you are in cinematic trouble.
"Austin Powers" works best when Dr. Evil appears and his counterpart, Mini-Me, and thus I enjoyed their conference scenes. I also liked Seth Green as Dr. Evil's spoiled son, and it is a pleasure to see a cameo of Tim Robbins as the President of the United States. But Myers unfolds his bag of tricks and jokes prematurely and his one-note persona ("Crazy, baby, yeah" or "Shall we shag?") grows repetitious. I was ready to say to Austin, "Zip it." Save for some brilliantly funny gags and one-liners, "Austin Powers" is too dependable on his mojo to really work.
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