Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002)
Grade: B+
Cast: Mike Meyers, Beyonce Knowles, Seth Green, Verne Troyer, Michael Caine,
Michael York, Mindy Sterling, Fred Savage
Director: Jay Roach
Rated PG-13 for sexual innuendo, crude humor, and language.
Something about the Austin Powers universe has always done something for me.
I found myself anticipating the latest, third installment, “Austin Powers
In Goldmember”, with an almost giddy glee, mentally imagining just how funny
it might be.
Critics have been less than giddy with the Austin Powers franchise. Most
conclude that the first was the only good one. That first film, “Austin
Powers: International Man Of Mystery”, was released in 1997 to decent
reviews and box office, and then it exploded on video. Mike Meyers played
Austin Powers, frozen in the 60s and thawed out in the 90s to battle Dr.
Evil (also Mike Meyers). Much of the humor revolved around Powers, once a
sex-crazed swinger, and now a fish-out-of-water in the 90s, where he just
doesn’t fit in. Elizabeth Hurley played his partner, Vanessa.
Because of its surprise video success, a sequel became inevitable, and in
1999 “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” was one of the most anticipated
films of the year. Mike Meyers was back playing Austin and Evil, as well as
a new bad guy: Fat Bastard. There are points when the constant poop humor
revolving around Fat Bastard became tired, but mostly he was a pretty funny
character and an unquestionably worthy entry to the franchise. Also new was
Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), Dr. Evil’s 1/8-sized clone that took priority over
Evil’s hilariously cynical biological son Scott (Seth Green). Also back
were some supporting characters from the first time around: Frau (Mindy
Sterling), Mustafa (Will Ferrell), and Number 2 (Robert Wagner, whose
character was played by Rob Lowe in the scenes set in the 60s). The partner
this time was Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham, who looked fantastic but
paled in comparison to Hurley in terms of presence). Critics didn’t much
care for the second installment. Not that that matters; I did. I thought
it was about equal to the original, but with much bigger laughs and a few
more missteps, which balanced things out.
I’m not sure what exactly I love about the Austin Powers films so much;
they’re funny, yes, but something besides the typical reaction of laughter
has always attracted me to the franchise—I like them before they give me
anything to laugh about. Part of it is certainly Mike Meyers; he throws
himself into the roles with as much gusto as is probably humanly possible.
I especially admire his physical work as Fat Bastard. Myers is a small man,
and FB “weighs a metric ton”. Maybe that would explain why he’s only in two
scenes (well, 1½ really; you’ll understand when you see the film) in the
third film. It’s probably also partly because of Jay Roach’s direction; he
proved with “Meet the Parents” that he can do other types of comedy just as
well as he can do this type.
I could have been disappointed with “Austin Powers In Goldmember”, I really
could have, given my monstrous expectations, but I wasn’t. It played, as
Myers was quoted as hoping, like “the ‘Godfather, Part II’ of broad comedic
sequels”. It’s smarter, bigger, and more ambitious than its predecessors,
and everything pays off in the end. “Goldmember” is the funniest film to
hit theaters so far in 2002, and I don’t really care what everyone else
thinks about it.
The film begins with an absolutely brilliant movie-within-a-movie that I
don’t think I can ruin without feeling guilty. It is funny when it is
anticipated (trust me, I’ve seen the film twice), but it definitely, for its
full success, depends on the element of surprise. Everything about the
first ten minutes or so is as amazing as anything in all three films, and
really as amazing as anything I’ve seen from a 2002 film.
The film then settles back into typical Powers formula, with Dr. Evil
explaining a plan, but this time Austin catches him early on and he and
Mini-Me go to jail. The jail sequence is put together so that some of the
better jokes wouldn’t get cut, but I won’t bore you by listing them. Powers
finds out that his “fajjra”, Nigel Powers (Michael Caine) has been kidnapped
and hidden in 1975 by Dr. Evil and a new character, Goldmember (also played
by Myers).
Goldmember becomes the film’s first mistake. He is not very funny. He is a
graphically freckled, triple-limbed swinger from Holland who speaks with a
Dutch accent and comes from Holland just so Myers could use a Dutch accent.
It is a funny accent, don’t get me wrong. Myers proves he is one of the
only people in Hollywood that can wring laughs from an accent alone. But
little about Goldmember himself is funny. Goldmember also eats his dead
skin, which is funny in a depraved way, but only the first time the joke is
used. I can’t bring myself to hate the character, but he is a
disappointment.
Also a miscalculation is the character of Nigel. Legendary actor Michael
Caine does a good job with the character, if you can call it a character. I
call it a reason to get Michael Caine in your movie. The movie grinds to a
halt every time it tries to get serious, and it only tries to get serious
when Caine is onscreen. The fact that Austin’s father is in it is okay, but
so few jokes about him are funny that it doesn’t rise above a gimmick. The
final bad character is Number Three (Fred Savage), yet another new character
with an enormous mole on his face. Number Three is a mole with a mole.
This is funny in theory, but the characters reactions are anything but
funny. I think the funnier route would have been for no one to notice the
mole but Mini-Me. That way, nobody would know what he was referring to,
since he’s a mute. There is one good new character, though: Austin’s
partner this time around, Foxxy Cleopatra (singer Beyonce Knowles of
Destiny’s Child). Knowles shows surprising comic timing and holds her own
despite the fact that she’s in the background a little too much.
Those are about the only problems I had with “Austin Powers In Goldmember”,
which is a good thing since Goldmember, Number Three, and Nigel combined
have only about 25 minutes screen time in the movie, and not all of their
screen time is wasted.
Most of “Goldmember” is a comic goldmine, a spoof so self-aware and
appropriately ridiculous that I couldn’t help but love it. Dr. Evil is
still my favorite Myers character, and his rap song in this installment is
hilarious, especially if you’re familiar with the Jay-Z song he’s spoofing.
Austin has some classic lines and scenes, but it seems to me that he’s less
a source of comedy and more a character that knows sources of comedy. Fat
Bastard, to his credit, gets some of the film’s biggest laughs, and his last
line is his character’s best in both films.
I’m not sure what else to say about “Goldmember”. As a result to the bigger
scale, plot and plausibility hit the road, but that’s how it ought to have
been anyway. “Goldmember”, with its outrageous visual gags, its alternating
smart and dumb humor, and its brilliant performance(s) by Mike Myers, is the
best Austin Powers film so far. It’s extremely subjective, and I can’t
really explain its appeal, but the bottom line is that I’m pretty close to
counting down the days till “Austin Powers IV”.
-Alex, August 2002
