← Back to Reviews
in
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Mike Meyers and the gang return for another round of colorful, psychedelic 60's hi-jinks in 1999's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, another bawdy spy spoof that is actually funnier than the original.
Mike Meyers returns as the super groovy 1960's secret agent trying to adjust to live if the 1990's. Austin learns at the beginning of this sequel that his new bride, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley) was really a robot. He is assigned new partner in the very shapely form of one Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) who have to travel back to the year 1969, two years after Austin was frozen in the first film, to protect him from Dr. Evil (Meyers) who has also returned to 1969 because he thinks the secret to defeating Powers is by stealing his mojo.
Director Jay Roach and Meyers have mounted another loving valentine to James Bond, which opens with a very authentic-sounding Bond-style theme song launching into some beautifully edited opening credits which feature a naked Austin Powers cleverly covered up.
We even get an affectionate wink at the first Bond film Dr. No. This sequel also introduces a couple of terrific new characters who give Austin a run for his money. There's an immensely overweight spy who works for Dr. Evil called Fat Bastard (also Meyers) and a clone of Dr. Evil who is only 1/8 of Evil's height whom he affectionately names Mini-Me (the late Verne Troyer), who finds himself in a serious case of sibling rivalry with Dr. Evil's bratty son, Scott (Seth Green).
Like the first film. this movie provides non-stop laughs from opening credits to closing remaining completely relevant to the first film without rehashing and absolutely fearless about never allowing us to forget we are watching a movie...there are various forms of breaking the 4th wall here, including moments where characters talk directly to the camera and little dance breakaways that will remind those, who are old enough to remember, of the NBC series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and their party scenes with bikini -clad girls with painted torsos.
There was one odd bit of casting continuity that gnawed at me initially. Robert Wagner reprises his role as # 2 here in the scenes that take place in 1999, but when the character is introduced in 1969, he is played by Rob Lowe, which was kind of clever because the resemblance between Wagner and Lowe is startling, but why do that with the # 2 character and not with the rest of the cast? But I digress, this movie still had me laughing out loud and Heather Graham seemed to be more in tuned to what's happening here than Elizabeth Hurley did. Troyer was a revelation in a role that didn't allow him to speak and Seth Green still had me on the floor as Scott Evil. His appearance with his dad on The Jerry Springer Show also had me on the floor. Will Ferrell reprises his cameo from the first film and there are other cameos by Rebecca Romjin, Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Woody Harrelson, and Jennifer Coolidge. Really didn't think this film could be as funny as the first one, but it was funnier. Followed by Austin Powers: Goldmember.
Mike Meyers and the gang return for another round of colorful, psychedelic 60's hi-jinks in 1999's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, another bawdy spy spoof that is actually funnier than the original.
Mike Meyers returns as the super groovy 1960's secret agent trying to adjust to live if the 1990's. Austin learns at the beginning of this sequel that his new bride, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley) was really a robot. He is assigned new partner in the very shapely form of one Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) who have to travel back to the year 1969, two years after Austin was frozen in the first film, to protect him from Dr. Evil (Meyers) who has also returned to 1969 because he thinks the secret to defeating Powers is by stealing his mojo.
Director Jay Roach and Meyers have mounted another loving valentine to James Bond, which opens with a very authentic-sounding Bond-style theme song launching into some beautifully edited opening credits which feature a naked Austin Powers cleverly covered up.
We even get an affectionate wink at the first Bond film Dr. No. This sequel also introduces a couple of terrific new characters who give Austin a run for his money. There's an immensely overweight spy who works for Dr. Evil called Fat Bastard (also Meyers) and a clone of Dr. Evil who is only 1/8 of Evil's height whom he affectionately names Mini-Me (the late Verne Troyer), who finds himself in a serious case of sibling rivalry with Dr. Evil's bratty son, Scott (Seth Green).
Like the first film. this movie provides non-stop laughs from opening credits to closing remaining completely relevant to the first film without rehashing and absolutely fearless about never allowing us to forget we are watching a movie...there are various forms of breaking the 4th wall here, including moments where characters talk directly to the camera and little dance breakaways that will remind those, who are old enough to remember, of the NBC series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and their party scenes with bikini -clad girls with painted torsos.
There was one odd bit of casting continuity that gnawed at me initially. Robert Wagner reprises his role as # 2 here in the scenes that take place in 1999, but when the character is introduced in 1969, he is played by Rob Lowe, which was kind of clever because the resemblance between Wagner and Lowe is startling, but why do that with the # 2 character and not with the rest of the cast? But I digress, this movie still had me laughing out loud and Heather Graham seemed to be more in tuned to what's happening here than Elizabeth Hurley did. Troyer was a revelation in a role that didn't allow him to speak and Seth Green still had me on the floor as Scott Evil. His appearance with his dad on The Jerry Springer Show also had me on the floor. Will Ferrell reprises his cameo from the first film and there are other cameos by Rebecca Romjin, Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Woody Harrelson, and Jennifer Coolidge. Really didn't think this film could be as funny as the first one, but it was funnier. Followed by Austin Powers: Goldmember.