This year, for the first time ever, I spent Christmas away from my family, spending it in Austria rather than returning to Taunton or Shrewsbury to spend it with my family. As a result it was a very different celebration to normal, but nevertheless a very enjoyable one, with plenty of fun. Whilst the snow fell on 27th December, I got round to watching the first of my Christmas present DVDs – Austin Powers II – “The Spy who Shagged Me”. This being a DVD review, rather than an out and out film review, I do not intend to dwell overly on the plot of this film. So I will give you a very rough outline in a single paragraph and no more, before concentrating on the extras included on the DVD, as from my point of view, it is the extras on the DVD that convince you of whether you purchase the DVD or not, as well as the picture and sound quality of the film, rather than the film itself – as is the case with purchasing a video of a feature film.

Plot in one paragraph:

Austin Powers, frozen in 1967 and kept in a cryogenic state is unfrozen in the 1990s where he continues his swinging 60s way of life (Oh the care-free pre-AIDS era of swinging!). Ultimately the film once again revolves around Austin’s battle with Dr. Evil (who is also played by Mike Myers, who plays Austin himself!). This time, with the aid of a baddie of similar stature to Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote, a character known simply as Fat B’stard, Dr. Evil has stolen Austin’s mojo (the thing which gives the Sultan of swing his sixties sexy slinkiness!). Along with his sidekick, Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham), Austin battles Dr. Evil and Mini-Me who are exceptionally Blofeld and Oddjob-esque in an innuendo-packed caper in order to regain his mojo… Enough said…

The DVD:

The version I am reviewing is the Region 2 DVD.

Picture quality:

Obviously with a film only shot in 1999, there is less likely to be any remastering of the picture necessary, which makes the picture quality less important than on DVDs of feature films of yesteryear (some DVD producers sadly do not pay attention to the fact that the picture quality of an old film often could benefit from a few nips and tucks). The film is in 16:9 letterbox format, which displays well both on larger TV screens and on laptops – I tend to watch a lot of films on my laptop when on the train, plane or away on business – cheaper than pay per view on Hotel TVs! The picture quality for the film is unsurprisingly crystal clear, but then again this is probably due to the fact that the film itself is only 3 years old and therefore the picture would not need any touching up (oh behave!).

Sound quality:

The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, which is especially noticeable when you listen to the film and extras in surround sound (as I also do on my laptop unless in an aeroplane or train!). The sound quality is particularly good when it comes to the extra music videos, contained in a hidden menu.

Deleted scenes:

Obviously the film was written to be added to and as well as the main feature there are a mind-bogglingly large number of delete scenes, which are a compromise of catastrophic clangers, comic quips and unscripted blunders (such as an espresso machine that obscures Dr. Evil’s speech and leads to him threatening to castrate the extra!). All in all the 21 deleted scenes amount to an extra 20 minutes of smutty-humour, which certainly makes interesting watching if the 91 minutes of the film. The madcap mix is definitely well worth a look at after the main features’ closing titles have rolled.

Behind the scenes:

As with many DVDs, there are several behind the scenes features, with a mini-documentary on the various influences behind the film, made up of actor sound-bites (e.g. one from Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Mike Myers and Heather Graham) footage shot showing the film process e.g. monitor footage, scenes of the costumes and choreography, interviews with cameo stars e.g. Burt “A House is not a home” Bacharach and Elvis “She” Costello. Of course if would have been very unjust to have deprived Mini-Me of a featurette, and of course they’ve not disappointed, with Mini-Me being given the treatment. The feature “A new take, a new spin” is one that gives away the films that Mike Myers has done in other films which have been melted into one to create the character of Austin Powers.

Trailers:

The DVD also contains a more generous than most surfeit of trailers, with four trailers appearing - two teasers, a theatrical trailer, as well as a trailer for Austin Powers – International Man of Mystery, which was of course the prequel to AP II.

Cameos:

Having mentioned that the cameo stars also get interviewed in the behind the scenes stuff, there is also a section on them – with filmographies of eight of the cameo stars, with a link up to the scenes that they appear in, so that you can see the appearances that they make. Another very good feature, which has clearly been well thought-out and compiled, something which is so often neglected in films.

Music Videos:

Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” was one of the songs that was specially recorded for the film, and there is a very raunchy video and performance by Madge on the DVD – well worth watching everyone’s favourite naughty forty with Austin in his Shaguar… Ooh! Behave!!!! There is a full-length video, which is well worth a watch, and you can see why Madonna still turns heads.

Lenny Kravitz’s song “American Woman” is another song to be included with a full video, with an overdose of the Stars & Stripes throughout the video, interspersed with Lenny’s trademark guitar skills on the Flying Vee that he first used in the song “Are you going to go my way” back in 1993. Again it’s a lust-charged video – fully in-keeping with the film it is accompanying.

The third extra audio track is Mel G’s track filmed in Doctor Evil’s moon-base, which sees Mel G (Scary Spice) dressed up as a cross between a satellite and a robot, with dancing cameos from Mini-Me. The track is fairly typical of her, and is not really anything to write home about on its own, although it is still quite a cool little extra.

The case:

The box contains the standard blurb and information about the film, whilst the inlay card contains details of the scene selection, the individual deleted scenes and details of the extra features.

Price:

Obviously I got this one as a present, so don’t not how much my sister paid for it, although I had suggested she try play.com where the film is currently on offer for an amazing £7.49 (ca. €12) delivered within the UK, which is hard to beat if you ask me!

Other miscellaneous info:

Certificate: 12 (UK), 16 (Ireland)
New Line Home Video EDV 9046

Conclusion:

I loved the film and loved the features even more – they gave me a closer inspection of the finer intricacies of the film that I missed when watching the main first time round. One thing I would recommend if you watch the film with other film buffs is to try and work out how many other films the film takes off (Russ Meyer meets Barbarella meets Goldfinger etc…). And of course, it might inspire you to refind your mojo, as it did me, where I promptly headed off to a party and had the best laugh and most fun I’ve had a in a long, long time – definitely a feel-good film with feel-even-better extras. Grrrrrrrr! Even the stars comment that some of the deleted scenes are now better known that the main feature – definite proof that the deleted scenes are well worth watching! Whilst the film might struggle to hang-in at four out of five, the DVD itself compensates for it and makes this a 5 out of 5 DVD.