In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, set in the 90s, Austin's arch-nemesis Dr. Evil is laughably stuck in the 60s, demanding a million dollars to ransom the world, etc. Now it's the second installment, though, and, to keep it interesting, Mike Myers has turned it all around: back in his own time--the 60s--Dr. Evil is now laughably stuck in the 90s. Meaning he now wants to ransom the world for a billion or so dollars, which is just as preposterous as his 90s ransom demand. Which is precisely what Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is all about: temporal dislocation. It's why we love (or hate) Austin--via some fantastic cryogenics, he's managed to preserve a 60's mindset wholly unsullied by the 70s and 80s. But, to return to the little binary set that propels both movies (Dr. Evil/Austin Powers), while this childlike quality is light-hearted and attractive in Austin, in Dr. Evil it's a character flaw. Granted, a lighthearted, entertaining one, but still, more or less the reason Austin defeats him in International Man of Mystery. The Spy Who Shagged Me isn't quite so balanced. This time the binary set of Austin/Evil falls apart a bit, with Dr. Evil more or less taking the lead role, leaving Austin and Agent Shagwell (Heather Graham) to their series of hijinks etc. Perhaps this is a result of the introduction of Fat Bastard (Mike Myers again), Dr. Evil's lackey, or perhaps Evil's Mini-Me skewed everything somehow. Whatever the case, with Austin and Evil no longer counterbalancing each other narratively, the mojo that propelled us through the first installment is somewhat diluted, and all we have to pull us through then is the slapstick, the self-conscious intertextuality, the in-jokes. But there is plenty of all three. Maybe even too much. Granted, Dr. Evils' Puff-Daddy intermezzo is one of the highlights of the movie, something we can cue into, and there's Austin mistaking a stool-sample for coffee, even Agent Shagwell pulling an Austin from International Man of Mystery (sleeping with the enemy), but it doesn't all cohere. Instead of going constantly forward as a 'fantastic' comedy absolutely needs to, The Spy Who Shagged Me sidesteps again and again into un-plot-related SNL-ish sketches. Dr. Evil's Puff-Daddy intermezzo is a case in point. But , again, these sketches are entertaining (especially Will Ferrel's Monty Python take-off), they just make The Spy Who Shagged Me a fundamentally different type of movie than International Man of Mystery, which used the sketches as plot devices. In spite of these narrative difficulties, however, The Spy Who Shagged Me does redeem itself, both with the frame it sets itself in (Jerry Springer episodes) and with a wonderful little device it uses never to say 'penis' when 'penis' really needs to be said. Just as in the closing scene of International Man of Mystery the naked Austin and Vanessa Kensington's (Elizabeth Hurley) R-rated parts are always hidden at the last possible moment, so in The Spy Who Shagged Me--via wordplay, editing, and cameos (Woody, Willie, etc)--'penis' is never said in the proper context, though it's what everyone's talking about. This is Austin Powers, after all, and, while we may not expect narrative rigor, we can can count on extended joke-sequences such as these, handled with that signature Mike Myers touch.
(c) 1999 Stephen Graham Jones for more like this, check out http://ww.cinemuck.com
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