Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me DVD > Reviews > Out of the way Powers Dr E is here

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Dr Evil
Disadvantages:	FB

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

‘Austin Powers, International Man Of Mystery’ was a worldwide smash hit comedy film for its creator Mike Myers, very late of ‘Wayne’s World’ and other teen comedy work and he liked it so much he bought the company and brought out a follow up – ‘Austin Powers 2, The Spy Who Shagged Me’.

In many senses, however, 2 isn’t strictly a comedy at all, it’s more a series of individual sketches, spoofs and satires all loosely linked together around the framework of Dr Evil’s attempts to hold the world to ransom. It’s no less enjoyable for that, however, and Myers gives a tour de force performance as the very lovable parody of Bond’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld Dr Evil. In fact, if 1 was the vehicle for the Powers character, then 2 is very much the stage for the aforementioned Doc to give vent to his full comedic possibilities, with Myers gamely sending up all manner of cinema and music cliches, such as Bond, rap music and God knows what else. Austin Powers, again also played by Myers, definitely takes second fiddle here, while the third Myers character, Fat Bastard, is a sad mistake, light relief in this collection of light reliefs, but bringing the whole thing down very much to worse than toilet humour (see the toilet scene in the London Underground as FB ditches the homing device.

Myers is undoubtedly a very gifted talent, with an eye and a talent for the absurd. His spoof early on of the Jerry Springer Show, starring the appalling gentleman as himself, is sharp and focused and very, very funny. At other times, Myers is self indulgent and silly to the point of childishness.

Okay, earnest finger pointing moment over with, on with the show …

2 takes over where 1 ended, with Powers newly married to Liz Hurley, or, as we quickly learn, a Fembot which is designed to blow AP to Kingdom Come. Having avoided that little attempt on his life, Powers goes back in time to recover his stolen Mojo and teams up with the very lovely Heather Graham of British Intelligence. 2 is even more intent than 1 on exploting the myth of the Swinging Sixties and Carnaby Street and even contains Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach performing ‘’I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ at a pavement café, accompanied by all sorts of awful refugees from the period – gorgeous stuff, indeed.

This film as a whole is a gaudy, psychedelic rush of parody, very funny and energetic for the most part with lots of delightful touches. The recreation of Robert Wagner’s No 2 role by the very slimy Rob Lowe (who also featured in ‘Wayne’s World’) when the action reverts to the 60’s is just one of them.

The cloning of Dr Evil as Minime was a good idea, with some success, but the joke is recycled too many times to stand up throughout and wears a bit thin later on, although it creates a neat option for interplay of jealousy between the clone and Dr Evil’s natural first born.

I guess if Mike Myers hadn’t come up with Austin Powers and these two episodes then someone else would have had to invent them because this sort of over the top spoofery is very, very necessary and it might as well be MM coming up with the goods. He teeters on the brink of falling apart for most of this film, but there is enough of merit here to rescue the project.

It ain’t an Oscar winner, but it’s a pretty fun way of spending a couple of hours.