Review of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) by Phil H — 16 May 2014

Never mind the 60's the 90's are dated enough jez! this film brings back so many memories of my teen years and how this film really made an impact on those times, not me...just the time.

So apart from bad personal memories what else does this film offer? well actually its pretty good and probably one of the best Bond spoofs/parodies you will see. With a wide range of Bond films spoofed it covers all the regular cliched bases, all the set ups, costumes, plot ideals that you would expect from Bond plus a lot of clever smutty humour. Actually Myers does really well with the whole British comedy thing, he does nail or encapsulate the genre very well, you could almost say its a modern 'Carry On' film.

Seeing as this is the first film its not quite as good as the second for me, everything is obviously being set up with characters etc...and the abundance of cameos was slightly worrying at first, kinda assumed it would be a mass celebrity ego trip but surprisingly it all adds to the fun quite nicely. The small cameos by Lowe and Ferrell are good (and fast) but the brief Tom Arnold cameo was probably the best if you like blatant toilet humour.

Hard to tell who this is aimed at really as there is much slapstick and childish humour but also some knife edge stuff also, lots of sexually visual gags and naughty names which are very suggestive but admittedly smile inducing. A much more easier character to get on with than 'Wayne Campbell' of 'Wayne's World' and a more universal concept methinks. Every possible stereotype is lanced, all costumes, sets, music, vehicles etc...are correctly presented as this juggernaut of the 60's era steams along with some crazy wild vintage kitsch and a performance from Myers that Carrey would envy.