Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Review
by John Beachem (jabii AT aol DOT com)June 26th, 1999
A review by John Beachem
* * 1/2
CAST
Mike Myers - Austin Powers / Dr. Evil / Fat Bastard
Heather Graham - Felicity Shagwell
Seth Green - Scott Evil
Robert Wagner - Number Two
Rob Lowe - Young Number Two
Verne Troyer - Mini Me
Michael York - Basil Exposition
Mike Myers is at it again, creating a sequal to the horrible "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery". This is another one of those rare cases where the sequal actually surpasses the original (See: "I Still Know what you did Last Summer"). Unfortunatly, it's not a whole lot better. It simply has a few more humorous moments than the last one did (which I'm afraid isn't saying much).
The year is 1999, and Austin is with his new wife Vanessa. Vanessa turns out to be a robot working for Dr. Evil however, and tries to kill Austin. Austin escapes, and so has Dr. Evil we find out. Evil gets his organization up and running courtesy of stock he owns in Starbuck's. He then decides to get rid of Austin by stealing his Mojo (it's never clearly explained what this is). With Austin out of the way, he will be able to destroy cities with his orbiting laser platform. Austin, sans mojo, teams up with a C.I.A. agent named Felicity Shagwell and goes after Evil.
The majority of the film takes place back in the sixties. For some strange reason, Dr. Evil finds it neccessary to switch back in forth through time. Evil has also created a clone of himself, one eighth his size which he names "Mini Me". Mini Me actually provides a considerable amount of the film's humor.
The movie certainly isn't without its funny moments. In fact, almost any scene which contains Dr. Evil, Mini Me, or Scott Evil (Seth Green) is quite amusing. One of the funniest, in fact, would have to be when the doctor and Scott get in a father / son spat on Jerry Springer at the beginning of the film. Mini Me is hilarious just about whenever he's on screen. The real problem is when Austin himself shows up, and the movie's humor slows way down. Most of the jokes Austin makes fall dead immediatly, While others start to build, and are suddenly dropped. Another large problem, is that quite a few jokes, many of them pretty bad to begin with, are reused over and over again.
As for the characters, obviously most of them from the original have returned, but two new ones have been added: Mini Me, and Fat Bastard. Mini Me is an absolute riot, but Fat Bastard (Mike Myers under gobs of makeup) seems to be there to do nothing more than disgust the audience and give oppurtunities for poop jokes. Another problem is Heather Gragham. Now, I know this obviously isn't an actor driven movie, but she is terrible. She looks embarassed to even be in the film half the time, and the other half she's switching back and forth between being chipper for no reason, and being serious.
All in all, there are some very amusing moments, but the majority of the movie falls dead. If you liked the original, you'll probably enjoy this one. If you didn't, beware. The film is more or less a rehash. Oh, and don't eat before hand, because I guarantee Fat Bastard will have you feeling a little queezy.
* * * * * - One of the greatest movies ever made, see it now.
* * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one.
* * * - Okay movie, hits and misses.
* * - Pretty bad. See it if you've got nothing better to do.
* - One of the worst movies ever. See it only if you enjoy pain.
E-mail with comments at: JABII@aol.com
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