austin
powers:
the spy who shagged me |
director
Jay Roach
screenwriters
Mike Myers
Michael McCullers
producers
John S. Lyons
Eric McLeod
Demi Moore
Mike Myers
Jennifer Todd
Suzanne Todd
cinematographer
Ueli Steiger
music
George S. Clinton
editors
Debra Neil-Fisher
Jon Poll
cast
Mike Myers (Austin Powers/Dr. Evil/
Fat Bastard)
Heather Graham (Felicity Shagwell)
Michael York (Basil Exposition)
Robert Wagner (Number Two)
Rob Lowe (Young Number Two)
Seth Green (Scott Evil)
Mindy Sterling (Frau Farbissina)
Verne Troyer (Mini-Me)
Elizabeth Hurley (Vanessa Kensington)
Gia Carides (Robin Spitz Swallows)
Clint Howard (Johnson Ritter)
Burt Bacharach (Himself)
Elvis Costello (Himself)
Will Ferrell (Mustafa)
Woody Harrelson (Himself)
Kristen Johnson (Ivana Humpalot)
Charles Napier (General Hawk)
Willie Nelson (Himself)
Tim Robbins (The President)
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Herself)
Jerry Springer (Himself)
Fred Willard (Mission Commander)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 95m
u.s.
release: 6/11/99
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
other jay
roach films
reviewed on this website:
- austin
powers: international man of mystery
- austin powers in goldmember
- meet the parents
|
From
the descriptions of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,
we know that Austin has lost his "mojo," and has to
get it back from his nemesis Dr. Evil. But what about the Austin
Powers franchise -- does it still have its mojo? Judging
from the reactions of those around me in the theater (not to
mention my own response, a largely constant stream of laughter),
the answer is a resounding "Yeah, baby, yeah." The
movie delivers on its promise; it's a far cry from The
Phantom Menace.
Yet, sitting here away from the laughter, I feel a slight sense
of loss. Austin Powers is no longer the quirky little
comedy you recommended to friends, the cult item passed back
and forth on videotape, watched and rewatched, memorized. It's
gone from being a hip little party to being a big bash where
the stars turn out (there are a few celeb cameos in AP2).
Also, the humor is much broader now, emphasizing gross-out jokes
to the near-exclusion of some of the deadpan absurdity in AP1
-- such as Dr. Evil's baffling monologue in the support group
("In the spring we would make meat helmets"), or Dr.
Evil leading his cohorts in diabolical laughter that eventually
petered out until they all just kind of stood around looking
at each other.
With that out of the way -- along with my official disapproval
of the way Elizabeth Hurley's character Vanessa Kensington from
AP1 is dealt with -- let us praise AP2, not bury
it. Like its predecessor, the sequel never wants to be anything
more than silly and colorful, a clothesline for slapstick and
sexual innuendo; the AP movies pick up where the Naked
Gun series left off, reviving the old ZAZ what-the-hell,
anything-for-a-laugh mojo that ZAZ themselves seem to have lost
these days.
AP1 transplanted the late-'60s swinger Austin to 1997;
the new movie sends him back to 1969, along with Dr. Evil and
his derisive son Scott (Seth Green, having fun popping the old
man's balloon again), and I can't help thinking the sequel missed
a neat opportunity to have the very '90s Scott adjust to life
in 1969. As it is, Scott spends his time rolling his eyes at
Dad and competing with a new "brother" -- a diminutive
Dr. Evil clone named Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) who gets so many
laughs that he may swiftly replace Anakin Skywalker as this summer's
most popular character under four feet tall. Austin, too, gets
a new partner in 1969: the alluringly named CIA agent Felicity
Shagwell (Heather Graham).
As before, Mike Myers plays both Austin and Dr. Evil, and he
adds a new character to his repertoire -- Fat Bastard, who gives
Myers the chance to work on his Scottish brogue through pounds
of latex flab. Of the three, Dr. Evil easily wins the belt. Whether
he's favoring his minions with a little rap number (a parody
of Will Smith's "Just the Two of Us") or dealing with
the "weirdness" of interoffice sex, Dr. Evil is the
real hero of the movie by right of sheer comic inventiveness;
he has dimensions, whereas the amiable Austin just has mannerisms
-- often funny ones, but nothing too surprising, nothing you
didn't see in AP1.
I enjoyed AP2, enjoyed seeing these characters again and
revisiting Myers' loving, candy-colored homage to British '60s
culture. The only slight bummer in it, as I said, is that you
can't go home again -- you can only see Austin Powers
for the first time once, and a sequel, by definition, is just
same-only-different. I had the same reaction to Scream
2, another sequel good enough to make me wish its talented
creators would do something with the same impact as Scream,
but not another Scream. Similarly, having seen that Mike
Myers can create something as fresh as Austin Powers (and
as naggingly funny as Dr. Evil), and then craft a worthy, often
hilarious sequel, I look forward to his next creation. |