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Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
*1/2
Cinema
Releases - July 30, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Jay Roach. Written by Michael McCullers and Mike
Myers. Starring Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Robert Wagner, Rob Lowe, Verne
Troyer, Seth Green, Mindy Sterling, Michael York, Gia Carides, Elizabeth
Hurley.
Mike Myers is one of the most under-appreciated
comedians of our time. "Wayne's World", "Wayne's World 2", "So I Married
An Axe Murderer" and "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" are brilliant
pieces of cinema, and all had Myers as their writer and star.
Remembering how Myers managed to make "Wayne's
World 2" a wonderful, ground-breaking example of how to make a comedy sequel,
and how "Austin Powers" was a masterful James Bond spoof, you'd think that
"Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" would be worth seeing.
You'd think that it would avoid the traditional pitfalls of a bad sequel,
and offer new jokes of similar quality to those of the original film. You'd
be wrong.
Austin (Myers) is, you'll remember, a rotten-toothed
hipster spy, frozen in the 1960s, thawed in the 1990s. This film opens where
we left him at the end of the last one -- in bed with wife Vanessa (Elizabeth
Hurley). She explodes, turning out to be a killer robot from Austin's nemesis,
deranged Blofeld look-alike Dr Evil (Myers again). This madman has a son,
Scott (Seth Green), a henchwoman, Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling) and a
right-hand man, Number Two (Robert Wagner), who are constantly suffering
odd tirades from him in one of his underground lairs.
This time around, the hideout is located in a
hollowed-out volcano, from which Dr Evil again plans to blow up the world.
There's time-travel involved, which Austin uses also, along with his new
sidekick, Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham). Other new characters include
Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), a dwarf clone of Dr Evil, and a 1969 version of Number
Two, played by Rob Lowe.
"Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery"
was chock-full of terrific satire and innocent innuendo. "The Spy Who Shagged
Me" is, by comparison, dumb and vulgar trash. Its jokes are crude gross-out
humour, slapstick sight gags or cheap rip-offs of ideas from the
predecessor.
The gross-out humour is over-the-top and disgusting.
The character of Fat Bastard -- another one played by Myers himself -- revolted
me in every frame, as did moments such as Austin drinking faeces from a coffee
cup. Not all of the plain slapstick was terrible, but it doesn't belong in
an "Austin Powers" movie. And this instalment can't even pull off the joke
recycling -- its attempts are too obvious, don't make sense, miss the point
or suffer from the lost originality. Examples: In the original movie, there
is a scene that shows the cliché of villains engaged in a fit of crazed
laughter after plotting, before showing it come to an abrupt, uneasy halt.
Here, we just see the crazed laughter -- therefore the punchline's gone,
and the cliché has been employed, not satirised. And in the original,
the character of Alotta Fagina was a take on Pussy Galore. Here, there is
a character called Ivana Humpalot -- that's not a take on anything, just
a silly name.
While "The Spy Who Shagged Me" is prepared to
try and copy the jokes of the first film, it seems determined to ignore the
structure. Unfortunately, it doesn't find one of its own, struggling to get
a firm grip on what Austin is doing, and settling into a comfortable routine
only when Dr Evil appears. Other flaws: The movie goes along with Austin,
viewing him as cool, not goofy, and refusing to capitalise on the
fish-out-of-water humour that "International Man of Mystery" depended on.
Nor is there an effective equivalent to Elizabeth Hurley's Vanessa -- although
Heather Graham is charming as the love interest, her Felicity is too keen
on the hero, and doesn't provide enough tension. Mini-Me is even worse, joining
Jar-Jar Binks, The Waterboy and that midget woman from "Poltergeist" as one
of the most annoying movie characters I've seen.
There are only four funny scenes in the film,
and all involve Dr Evil... He and Frau Farbissina sleep together, then have
an awkward meeting days later... He taunts the 1969 President of the United
States when making his demands, and shows him clips from "Independence Day"
to show him what he'll do to the White House... His phallic aircraft floats
through the sky, as the movie cuts between people uttering names like "Woody"...
And there's a lengthy segment recreating "The Jerry Springer Show", as Scott
goes on the programme to complain about his overbearing dad.
But four successful scenes isn't good enough,
and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" is one of the year's big
disappointments. I attended the screening with two friends, who were also
big fans of the first film. On the way out, we should have been recalling
the biggest laughs. Instead, we were trying to remember who was President
thirty years ago.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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