Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999, Movie) – 6/10
|
Mike Myers |
Austin Powers: Spy Who Shagged Me, The (1999) Dr. Evil travels back in time to cripple his lifelong nemesis Austin Powers by stealing his Mojo. 6/10 Spoof sequel that veers alarmingly between spot-on hilarity and truly distasteful unfunniness. This movie contains mild swear words, strong adult dialogue, lesbian references and extremely unpleasant scenes, extreme and graphic violence and inferred sex scene.
|
: Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard
Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
Austin Powers (Mike Myers) is enjoying life in the Nineties after having forced Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) to flee to outer space aboard his Big Boy rocketship in the original film and is married to beautiful babe Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley, in a smashing nightie). As the Powers marriage dissolves, or rather explodes, with the discovery that Kensington is, in fact, a Fembot with orders to kill him, Austin recuperates by celebrating his return to bachelerdom with an unfeasibly hilarious credit sequence. Unknown to Powers, however, Dr. Evil is returning to Earth, firstly to pop up as a surprise guest on The Jerry Springer Show (“Sons of fathers who want to take over the world” and, yes, Jerry Springer does get involved in a punch-up!) and, secondly, to reveal to his evil cohorts a secret plan to ensure that his next attempt at world domination will succeed. He will scupper Austin Powers’ effectiveness as an irresistible secret agent by traveling back in time in a time machine he has invented to 1969, two years after Austin was originally frozen, to extract Austin’s Mojo, his sexual prowess. Austin is forced to go back in time in a time machine, as luck would have it, that has just been invented by the British government to rescue his Mojo and save the world as we know it.
This is, however, a plot-proof film and the narrative strength of movie simply doesn’t matter… as long as the gags are good. This Austin Powers movie demonstrates all of Mike Myers’ weaknesses as well as his strengths and while this movie ultimately winds up as being memorable for comic brilliance it is a very close call. This film is very nearly painfully unfunny.
Bad points include key cast members and characters. Heather Graham as Felicity Shagwell (“Shagwell by name, shag very well by reputation” – mildly amusing on paper, it’s not funny in the film) displays no comic ability at all though this is her only fault. More later. Kristen Johnson (from TV’s Third Rock from the Sun) is saddled with looking terrifying rather than alluring and her spectacular name, Ivana Humpalot, is slogged to death. She is astoundingly unfunny and, even worse, totally unsexy to the point of repulsiveness. Biggest mistake in cast and character is Mike Myers… Not as the truly marvellous Austin Powers or as the rather less marvellous but still funny Dr. Evil but as his new creation Fat Bastard, a huge Scotsman who weighs a metric ton and looks suspiciously like Chris Penn. His name is not funny, his character is not funny, and every scene with him in is a stinker (in more ways than one, normally!). The worst scene of the film is a scene with the big man naked in bed with an understandably uncomfortable-looking Felicity Shagwell, yeeeuughh! Mainly, it is the presence of this overweight lardy-pants henchman that threatens to scupper the entire project.
Add to this, Myers’ trademark ability to stretch a joke way past breaking point. There is a point with every joke in the world, no matter how funny, where it simply becomes tiresome. This habit completely messes up the pacing of Jay Roach’s direction. His direction is fine (though the film’s most visually arresting moment is the totally awesome footage of Apollo 13 blasting off and is borrowed from Ron Howard’s 1995 blockbuster) and the pace of the movie is relentless. Overall the movie feels very short – it is only just over an hour-and-a-half – but frequently individual scenes feel like they’re dragging. The fault is not really the director’s, he does the best he can (unlike the directors of Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World 2, Penelope Spheeris and Stephen Surjik – have you ever heard of them again?) but Myers’ insistence on making his Dr. Evil character slog every joke till it becomes well past its sell-by date within the length of a scene. The Dr. Evil / Frau Farbissinia seduction and love scene, for example, has lost the attention way, way before it is finally over. Dr. Evil’s repeated “Zip it!” was not particularly funny in the first film (it was “shh!” there) and it is rather less funny now.
Nevertheless, the movie does not leave you with a bad impression, despite the key mistakes and inadequacies mentioned.
Highlights include possibly the funniest credit sequence ever, an all-time classic cup of ‘coffee’ gag (painfully funny and simultaneously disgusting but pure genius), some brilliant shadow gags (“just reach right in, baby!”, a nod to Carry On Camping) and what is, without any doubt, the funniest fight sequence of all time (between Austin and Dr. Evil’s 1/8th replica, Mini-Me).
On top of this, you have Austin Powers himself. Austin remains just as charming and likeable as he was in the first movie. He is a truly personable chap and surprisingly well-etched for a comedy movie character. Some of his scenes are rather touching (such as when he arrives back in 1969 and notices that his teeth are now in dreadful condition again – an unfortunate but inexplicable side-effect of time-travel – and he tries to cover them up; his embarrassed confession to Felicity Shagwell that he has lost his Mojo) and Myers brings a great deal of genuine warmth to him.
Heather Graham, though displaying no comic timing and any ability to be funny whatsoever, is a definite plus point. Foxy just isn’t the word, she is an absolute stunner. “Shagadelic” is the technical description and every single outfit – she wears a different one in every scene – is, frankly, awesome. For those who thought we did not get to see enough of Elizabeth Hurley in that cat-suit and silver mini-skirt in the original movie will be more than satisfied with Graham’s almost constant contribution throughout this movie, ensuring that male mojos worldwide are given a thorough workout.
Will Smith, provides the inspiration for the movie’s musical highlight, a fantastic interpretation of his rap hit “Just the Two of Us” from the <em>Big Willie Style</em> album sung by Dr. Evil regarding him and his 1/8th replica Mini-Me. The gag where Dr. Evil leaps into his time machine only to bounce off it and go crashing to the floor (“I’m alright, I meant to do that! Number Two, would you switch the machine on, please”) is mighty funny. The 1969 US President (played by Tim Robbins) collapsing in stitches when asked to pay a ransom of $100 billion (“There isn’t that much money in the world, you might as well ask for a quadzillion-squillion gazoolians”) is hilarious.
Most of the film in-gags are rather obvious (and therefore carry little weight) and only slightly amusing. The movie opens with a Star Wars crawl, Jerry Maguire is referenced (Evil demands $100 billion and the bemused 1969 US President to “Show me the money! Show me the MONEY! SHOW ME THE MONEY!”), Dr. Evil reveals to Austin that he is his father (The Empire Strikes Back) though he “can’t prove it”, a clip of Independence Day is shown to the 1969 US President to demonstrate what annihilation will be like (okay, that one’s quite funny), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)’s uncomfortable chess and phallic euphemism scene is unpleasantly recreated and there are many others. Less obvious is the tribute to Chaplin’s The Great Dictator with the inflated globe (Chaplin performed a breathtaking ballet with it, Dr. Evil bounces it off Number Two until he cries and then scores a basket with it, rather good).
This movie should be remembered for three sequences. The first is the impossibly funny credit sequence. The next is the coffee gag. The last is the funniest fight sequence in cinema history between Austin Powers and Mini-Me which starts out hilarious and simply gets funnier and funnier and funnier as it progresses.
