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Austin
Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
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I
know, I should have the first movie,
too. I'm working on it. But the
truth is that this was bought first because
it's funnier. I can't say I'm entirely
taken with Heather Graham as Felicity
Shagwell, but Doctor Evil's scenes are even
more amazing than in the first. Any
would-be supervillain who'd brush aside the
billions that Starbucks brings in just to rule the world scores high
points in my book. And for once I really
enjoyed a Jerry Springer parody, where Dr.
Evil is introduced to us, and to his son
Scott Evil, as Jerry's surprise guest.
No surprise
that Evil plans on ruling the world.
This time his plan of attack is
doublefold: go back into time to steal
Austin Powers' mojo while building a secret
base on the moon to blackmail the world of
1969 with his "laser." His
inexplicably short clone, dubbed Mini Me,
doesn't quite assist so much as provide Dr.
Evil emotional comfort. As far as an
evil doctor is able to experience, anyway.
As always the
bad Doctor is never quite able to keep his
decades straight, and Scott, if allowed to
run the show, might be in charge of half the
galaxy by movie's end. But of course
good must triumph in spite of a deficit in
mojo. Mike Meyers does triple duty
here as Austin, Dr. Evil and Fat Bastard, a
hugely obese Scottish assassin. The
movie dips dangerously close into Nutty
Professor territory with fat and fart jokes,
but Bastard's screentime is, thankfully, not
as ample as he is. I mean, come on,
people. He's just gross.
Also getting
frowns and headshakes from others may be my
admission that I wasn't fond of Mini Me,
either. For one thing, I wish he'd had
lines. Verne Troyer was much funnier
in the TV show Shasta McNasty, but
that's just my nonhumble opinion. I
just wish... I don't know what turned me off
about the character. Maybe the joke
got old, or... something. And Will
Ferrell as Mustafa was downright
annoying. Even upon first viewing in
the theatre, his big "Oh! Please
don't ask me three times!" scene was
long and not funny. But then, to admit
to more blasphemy, I'm not a big fan of
Ferrell in general, either, and I am a HUGE Saturday
Night Live fan.
There are too
many excellent jokes and set pieces to give
a laundry list of great stuff. If
you've seen the first movie, chances are
you've seen this one, too. And those
of you with DVD players, I highly recommend
these two on that format. The special
features and "easter eggs" alone
are worth it. Better yet, watch a Bond
movie (Moonraker comes to mind for
this one, or Doctor No), or even the
Flint movies. That's James Coburn to
you, son.
Cool Quotes/Scenes:
Frau Farbissima: "I vill neffer luff anozzer man."
Doctor Evil: "That's... true."
Dr. Evil:
"Why make trillions when we could
make... billions?"
Austin: "...And I'm spent!"
Fat Bastard (to Mini Me): "Yew! Intew mah
belly!"
Rob Lowe as young Number Two
Austin and Felicity on Carnaby Street as Burt Bacharach
and Elvis Costello play.
Time traveling clones of Austin sharing the
*ahem* limelight
People taking turns trying to describe Doctor Evil's male
genitalia-shaped rocketship.
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