Review of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) by John B — 25 Dec 2014

In 1997 "Wayne's World"/SNL alum Mike Myers brought his love of British espionage films to fruition with "Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery". The film was only a moderate box office hit but through the magic of home video it was seized upon as a quotable goldmine and soon everyone was using the word "shag" at the most inappropriate of times.

The 1999 sequel brought the concept to what could pass as it's high water mark. Over ten years later, the first "Austin Powers" film is a bit of an oddity: a low-budget, patchwork jumble of nods towards spy flicks, early Michael Caine movies and Sixties stereotypes.

It's even sort of sweet and naive as sexually liberated Austin tries to acclimatise himself to a more sober life in the late-Nineties. The comedy in "The Spy Who Shagged Me" is considerably more mean-spirited, as "gross out humor" became more commonplace in comedies of the late 90's; a trend that has only recently begun to subside.

In fact we get two of the nastiest scenes in any film before or since here in the form of a fecal sample/coffee maker gaffe and the seduction of "Fat Bastard". Despite the turn of the stomach, there are some undeniably funny patches as the film develops it's own style of humor.

Anything involving Ernst Stavro Blofeld parody Dr. Evil and his estranged son Scott (played with slacker gusto by Seth Green) is pretty funny. Their appearance together on the "Jerry Springer Show" ("My Dad is Evil and Wants To Take Over the World!") is pure money.

I'm not sure if Myers quickly realized who was the funnier of his two leads or if he just enjoyed playing the megalomaniac more but here we get many more scenes with Dr. Evil. If that wasn't enough Verne Troyer is introduced as "Mini Me", Evil's one-eighth sized clone who comes off like a combination of a homicidal gremlin and an attack dog.

The scene where he tries to kill Scott but is thwarted by Frau Farbissina's spray bottle is priceless. Equally inspired is selecting Rob Lowe to play a young "Number Two". His take on Robert Vaughn's voice and mannerisms is spot-on.

Also, though I would think it nearly impossible to find a love interest more appealing than Elizabeth Hurley in the first film, Myers succeeds admirably by retaining Heather Graham to play appropriately named CIA agent "Felicity Shagwell".

She's compulsively watchable and pretty game with some of the nastier scenes. Her interlude with Fat Bastard is borderline gag-inducing. For some reason there are plenty of jokes here that I seem to be an easy mark for.

The shadow play tent sequence between Austin and Felicity is wickedly surreal, Dr. Evil's possessed pneumatic chair is gold and the donnybrook between Mini-Me and Powers towards then end of the film never fails to crack me up.

The third film in the trilogy "Goldmember" had some good moments as well but the law of "two much of a good thing" was beginning to kick in and the series was becoming a bit threadbare.

Nevertheless, it's fun to go look back at a former pop-culture juggernaut and muse about the fortunes of a rumored forth film now in the works. Has the "Austin Powers" ship sailed? In my opinion I think it should have but somehow I suspect my opinion doesn't have much "mojo".

Tilt Up.