AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(New Line) Starring: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Robert Wagner. Screenplay: Mike Myers. Producers: Suzanne Todd, Demi Moore, Jennifer Todd, Mike Myers. Director: Jay Roach. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 87 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Boy, did AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY take me back. Not to 1967, when I was a mere babe in arms, but to those carefree, halcyon days of 1990. George Bush was still flying high in the approval ratings, GHOST was making millions of Americans "believe," and Mike Myers was a cast member of a still-popular "Saturday Night Live." Myers provided some moments of comic genius in those days, even as the show was developing this habit of allowing sketches to exceed their welcome by several excruciating minutes. I was reminded of both aspects of 1990-era "SNL" as I watched AUSTIN POWERS: Myers' appeal, and the inability to recognize when enough is enough.
AUSTIN POWERS opens in 1967, where the title character (Mike Myers) is a legendary fashion photographer, secret agent and ladies man, battling arch-nemesis Dr. Evil (also played by Myers) alongside his partner Mrs. Kensington (Mimi Rogers). When Austin thwarts yet another of Dr. Evil's plans, the criminal mastermind has himself cryogenically preserved and launched into space to await another opportunity for evil. Thirty years later, Dr. Evil returns to earth, but the joke is on him: Austin Powers has _also_ had himself frozen, and is thawed out to take on his old foe. Together with Mrs. Kensington's daughter Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley), Austin tries to stop Dr. Evil from blackmailing the nations of the world, while also trying to adjust to a world with different sexual mores, different fashions, and better oral hygiene.
AUSTIN POWERS is a parody which could have run out of gas in seconds if Myers had been interested only in late 60s anachronisms. As it turns out, there are relatively few gags based on the culture shock of the hero and the villain. For the most part, AUSTIN POWERS is a fairly straightforward parody of James Bond-ian secret agent adventures, with gags more amusing than their obviousness gives them any right to be. Austin's British Intelligence superior (Michael York), whose only purpose is to explain the plot, is named Basil Exposition; the buxom femme fatale is suggestively named Alotta...well, the last name completes the picture. Myers energizes all these ideas with an odd-ball edge and the sheer exuberance of his performance in both roles. It's not possible to do justice to Dr. Evil's self-revelations in a father/son encounter group, or the "erotic" dance with which Austin subdues a horde of lethal female robots.
As long as AUSTIN POWERS feels vaguely original, and doesn't remind you of "Saturday Night Live," it's actually very funny. Unfortunately, if you watched Myers-era "SNL" at all, it's going to look awfully familiar. The characterization of Dr. Evil is a cross between Myers' Dieter character and Ed Sullivan; Austin is a grown-up version of his naughty British schoolboy Simon. He invokes his loud-mouthed thespian from "Theater Stories" in one early scene, and in another does a nearly word-for-word re-creation of a bit from a "Wayne's World" sketch. He seems so enamored of invoking memories of "SNL," in fact, that he invokes nightmares of jokes which refuse to die. On at least five separate occasions, Myers and director Jay Roach seem to have no sense of how long is too long to stick with an extended gag. They usually feel something like this: funny for five seconds, not funny for ten seconds, funny for five more seconds, not funny for eight and a half minutes.
After so many begging-to-be-pulled-from-life-support sequences, AUSTIN POWERS feels like one of the most padded 87 minute movies you'll ever see. It didn't need to be. The early scenes set in 1967 are hilarious, including a goofy opening credits sequence and the promise of nice repartee between Myers and Mimi Rogers as the Emma Peel-like Mrs. Kensington. Every time "Laugh-In"-style musical blackout segments appeared between scenes, I thought about how much funnier AUSTIN POWERS might have been as a pure period piece. It's the character of Austin Powers and the familiar plot elements from early James Bond films which are most appealing about AUSTIN POWERS; there was no particular need to put those elements in the 1990s. But that's what we've got: a comedy which jettisons a great premise for a merely adequate one. Myers alone may be reason enough to watch AUSTIN POWERS if you are a fan of his "SNL" glory days. There will be plenty of chances in the film to flash back to those days...and if you remember them at all, you know what a mixed blessing that could be.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 secret agent men: 5.
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