Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Seen on 11 September 1997 with Byron for $3 at the Cineplex Worldwide
Austin Powers proves that what is hilarious for $3 can be a rip off at thrice the price. It is hard to know how much I would have liked it at full price, but for $3, I had a rollicking good time!
A lot of movies and TV shows are spoofed here; not just the obvious 60s stuff like the 007 films, Get Smart, and the Avengers, but some newer movies like Demolition Man and more obscure things that the twentysomething set might not know at all. It's all h ere, from Dr. No's cat to gyrating hips that can decimate the Fembots (I was working my mojo, baaabeee!).
The plot is "fairly simple" as Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (that is what his card says) and his archnemesis Dr. Evil are cryogenically frozen, fighting each other in both the "Swinging London" of the 1960s and today's Las Vegas. (Both are played by the talented Mike Myers).
What surprised and delighted me most was that rather than endulging in constant "out of time" disparity jokes, there is a nice balance of spoofery. Obviously, if you have not seen a lot of the silly/nutty movies of the 1960s and 1970s, you will be missing a lot. There are not a lot of people out there who are going to catch Laugh-In references that quickly, you know.
My favorite scenes are those with Dr. Evil and his evil co-horts, as well as Dr. Evil trying to work out a relationship with his artificially born son Scott Evil (played by Seth Green, the little red-haired kid from Radio Days).
Most of the actors look like they're having a lot of fun. Mimi Rogers is Mrs. Kensington; Elizabeth Hurley is her curvaceous spy daughter in 1997 who is politically correct, but not invulnerable to Austin's persistent request: "Let's shag!" There are also lots of Go-Go Girls and Fembots (who look a lot like the women who used to surround Dean Martin with martinis).
The biggest problem with Austin Powers is the insistence to hold a joke and hit it repeatedly over our heads. A bad joke is funny sometimes; telling all six of its variants literally all at once, is not. Mike Myers is a very funny man. He should know better.
Overall, I had a lot of fun watching this movie. However, it was not the all-out laff riot that the five morons in front me must have thought it was. I guess they must've done lots of drugs before coming to the theatre to have that much forced laughter.
Watch for my perennial favorite Carrie Fisher as a father-son therapist.
----------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1997, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021, sethbook@panix.com.
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