Myers is still good as Austin Powers and even better as Dr. Evil. He also unfortunately plays a third character who is not so entertaining called Fat Bastard... a huge Scottish fellow who's only real purpose in the film is to be disgusting. There was only one moment of his in the film that I enjoyed (clearly a improvised one), but thankfully his character's screen time is kept to a minimum (unlike another annoying supporting character from a big summer 1999 release I might add). Heather Graham is on hand as 60's CIA agent Felicity Shagwell and provides some very nice visuals... and a decent performance too I guess... as does Elizabeth Hurley, briefly reprising her character from the first film. Rob Lowe plays the younger version of Robert Wagner's character Number 2, and does an amazingly dead on impersonation of Wagner. And you'll wish for more of Seth Green, who plays Dr. Evil's son.
So how does it compare to the first film? Well, in some ways it's better and in some ways it's worse. From a storytelling standpoint the first film is vastly superior. It was able to combine a cohesive story and huge laughs without any problem whatsoever. This film has some very inspired moments, so much so that it will help you overlook the complete lack of a comprehensible story (I know if the writers had tried, the story could have been fleshed out with ease). And many times the comedy here is better than the comedy in the first one. I think each one has it's own strong points which make up for it's own weaknesses. Having said that, I liked both films about the same, and look forward to a third one. [PG-13]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net
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