AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1997 Michael John Legeros
(New Line)
Directed by Jay Roach
Written by Mike Myers
Cast Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner, Michael
York, Fabiana Udenio, Mimi Rogers
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 87 min.
Reviewed at The Park Place 16, Morrisville, NC (02MAY97)
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This silly, sloppy, psychedelic spy-movie spoof stars and was writ- ten by Mike Myers, who plays both the title character and his arch- nemesis, Dr. Evil. Both have been reawakened from suspended animation, to do battle in and begin adjusting to the nineties. (Powers has prob- lems with political correctness, Baby, while Evil has to adjust his megalomaniac musings to accommodate inflation, ozone depletion, and Prince Charles' babe-o-matic ears.) The credits sequence is pretty groovy, I'll give it that, but the rest of the movie contains no more than, oh, twenty minutes of bankable hilarity. The jokes are bad, the timing worse, and only the occasional sequence stands out, such as Myers walking around in the buff, with various objects in the frame concealing his naughty bits. (Okay, I'll admit it: I also howled at a sequence set in a public restroom, with Powers fending off an assassin's attack and Tom Arnold in the next stall, thinking that he's hearing a struggle of a different kind.) The character of Austin Powers is, for all pract- ical purposes, another classic Mike Myers' creation, but damned if his script has a clue what to do with him.
Grade: C-
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Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell/
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