Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

If you don't think Austin Powers is one of the funniest movies of the 1990s, maybe you should be packed into a cryogenic time chamber and sent back to the decade whence you came. Perhaps it was the 1960s--the shagadelic decade when London hipster Austin Powers scored with gorgeous chicks as a fashion photographer by day, crime-fighting international man of mystery by night. Yeah, baby, yeah! But when Powers's arch nemesis, Dr. Evil, puts himself into a deep-freeze and travels via time machine to the late 1990s, Powers must follow him and foil Evil's nefarious scheme of global domination. Mike Myers plays dual roles as Powers and Dr. Evil, with Elizabeth Hurley as his present-day sidekick and karate-kicking paramour. A hilarious spoof of '60s spy movies, this colorful comedy actually gets funnier with successive viewings, making it a perfect home video for gloomy days and randy nights. Oh, behave! --Jeff Shannon "I put the grrr in swinger, baby!" a deliciously randy Austin Powers coos near the beginning of The Spy Who Shagged Me, and if the imagination of Austin creator Mike Myers seems to have sagged a bit, his energy surely hasn't. This friendly, go-for-broke sequel to 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery finds our man Austin heading back to the '60s to keep perennial nemesis Dr. Evil (Myers again) from blowing up the world--and, more importantly, to get back his mojo, that man-juice that turns Austin into irresistible catnip for women, especially American spygirl Felicity Shagwell (a pretty but vacant Heather Graham). The plot may be irreverent and illogical, the jokes may be bad (with characters named Ivana Humpalot and Robin Swallows, nie Spitz), and the scenes may run on too long, but it's all delivered sunnily and with tongue firmly in cheek. Myers's true triumph, though, is his turn as the neurotic Dr. Evil, who tends to spout the right cultural reference at exactly the wrong time (referring to his moon base as a "Death Star" with Moon Units Alpha and Zappa--in 1969). Myers teams Dr. Evil with a diminutive clone, Mini-Me (Verne J. Troyer), who soon replaces slacker son Scott Evil (Seth Green) as the apple of the doctor's eye; Myers and Troyer work magic in what could plausibly be one of the year's most affecting (and hysterically funny) love stories. Despite a stellar supporting cast--including a sly Rob Lowe as Robert Wagner's younger self and Mindy Sterling as the forbidding Frau Farbissina--it's basically Myers's show, and he pulls a hat trick by playing a third character, the obese and disgusting Scottish assassin Fat Bastard. Many viewers will reel in disgust at Mr. Bastard's repulsive antics and the scatological bent Myers indulges in, including one showstopper involving coffee and--shudder--a stool sample. Still, Myers's good humor and dead-on cultural references win the day; Austin is one spy who proves he can still shag like a minx. --Mark Englehart

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Sci-Fi
Production: New Line Home Entertainment
  3 wins & 6 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.0
Metacritic:
51
Rotten Tomatoes:
70%
PG-13
Year:
1997
89
Website
23,482 Views
If he were any cooler, he'd still be frozen, baby!
Frozen in the 60's... thawing spring '97, baby!
Debonair. Defiant. Defrosted.

Dr. Evil:
Gentlemen, welcome to my underground lair. Its been 30 years, but I'm back. Everything's gone perfectly to plan except one small flaw. Due to a technical error by my henchman Mustafa, complications arose in the unfreezing process.

Mustafa:
But my design was perfect.

Dr. Evil:
Look what you did to Mr. Bigglesworth!

[he reveals that Mr. Bigglesworth is now hairless]

Mustafa:
But, Dr. Evil, we were unable to anticipate feline complications due to the reanimation process.

Dr. Evil:
Silence! [pushes a button; Mustafa's chair tilts back dropping him into the pit of fire] Let this be a reminder to you all that this organization will not tolerate failure. [Mustafa can be heard moaning from an air vent] Gentlemen, lets get down to business. [Mustafa's moans continue] We've got a lot of work to do.

Mustafa:
Someone help me! I'm still alive, only I'm very badly burned.

Dr. Evil:
Some of you I know, some of you I'm meeting for the first time.

Mustafa:
Hello, up there! Anyone?! Can someone call an ambulance? I'm in quite a lot of pain.

Dr. Evil:
Okay, you've all been gathered here to form my evil cabinet-- [Mustafa starts again] Excuse me. [picks up his phone and talks to a henchmen on the other line] Yes, he's down there.

Henchman:
[almost inaudible] Is he dead yet?

Dr. Evil:
No. Not dead. Burnt, badly.

Henchman:
Would you like me to take care of him, possibly with a gun?

Dr. Evil:
Yes.

Henchman:
Kill him?

Dr. Evil:
Right. [hangs up]

Mustafa:
If somebody can open the retrieval hatch, down here I can get out. See, I designed this device myself-- [a hatch is heard opening] - Oh, hi. Good. I'm glad you found me. Listen. I'm very badly burned, so if you could just-- [a gunshot fires] You shot me!

Dr. Evil:
Okay, moving on.

Mustafa:
You shot me right in the arm! Why did-- [another gunshot fires; all is silent for a moment, then the hatch is heard closing]

Dr. Evil:
Right.


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