Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

A review by Jessica Brandt

Austin Powers. Other than the Blues Brothers and Late Night w/Conan O'Brien, probably the best thing to come out of the mind of anyone affiliated with Saturday Night Live. And it sure beats the pants off any Adam Sandler movie.

Mike Myers shagged his way into pop culture with the first movie about this unfrozen Inertnational Man of Mystery. Fearing the sequel to be a let-down, as most sequels go, I was more than pleasantly surprised with this movie. It seriously was a laugh-a-minute.

The basic plot goes as such: Dr. Evil (Myers) has a plan to take over the world (again, Pinky) and stop Austin Powers (Myers) from once more thwarting his plans by going back in time and stealing his mojo. Helping Austin retrieve his mojo and save the world this time is the "shaggarific" Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham). Helping Dr. Evil is his new 1/8th-his-size-clone "Mini Me" (Verne Troyer) and the metric-ton Scottish son of an unwed mother, Fat Bastard (Myers). Wackiness ensues.

The plot isn't the main point of the story. Exchanges between Mini Me and Dr. Evil are uproariously funny, as well as the fight for affection between Mini Me and Dr. Evil's son, Scott Evil (Seth Green). Myers as Austin Powers is still the same naked-dancing fool as before, but this time he cooled it a little with the "Yeah baby!s" and "Shaggarific!s". Myers drops subtle hints to the audience as "The English country side looks nothing like Southern California," and "If I'm coming from the future to my past, how am I..." connundrums. Also making a very obviously-staged appearance is Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, brought together much to the delight of many 70s music fans.

This movie is hard to describe. It's full of many "Ya had to see it" jokes. One downside to the movie is the relevance of Fat Bastard to anything...but I think Myers just wanted to see what it was like to weigh a metric ton. And talk in a Scottish accent. And be naked. Eating chicken. With Heather Graham.

Another downside to any comedy is a love story. But with Austin Powers having such powerful mojo, I suppose it's expected. But trust me. I was as cynical as anyone about this movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Myers threw in enough subtle pop-culture references to make me giggle (I was the only one in the theater who knew what the "Alan Parsons Project" was), but if you don't get those references, Scott Evil will set you straight, dumbass.

I wish I could give a more thorough, intelligent review, as our main reviewer-guy Justin would...but he's on vacation and we're struggling to put this together. I am not one to write a good review.

I can tell you this: I work at a movie theater, and Austin Powers crowds are the messiest. I attribute it to the fact that people are laughing so hard, they're dropping their popcorn and jujubees on the floor.

Or, people are just pigs.

Rating:

(Out of five)