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"It's groovy,
man!" Hehehe … I haven't laughed this hard in a theatre since last year's
"The Waterboy" with Adam Sandler. "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged
Me" gets my vote for the funniest movie of the year so far. Going into the movie, I
was afraid that the funniest scenes were shown in the trailers - remember "Hot Shots
Part Deux" - but fortunately, that's not the case. This movie is a roller coaster of
laughs. The jokes and gags just keep on coming, and don't stop until the end of the
credits.
What kind of sequel is this? It's
the "Die Hard 2: Die harder," or "The Lost World" type of sequel. The
makers of the film know (or think they know) what you're looking for from the movie and
all they do is give that to you in a concentrated form. For "Die Hard 2," it's
the action; for "The Lost World," it's the dinosaurs; and for "The Spy Who
Shagged Me," it's the crude jokes and improvisations. What usually gets lost in this
type of sequel is the story. If you're the target audience for this type of sequel, then
you'll think the movie is great, but when ask what the movie's about, the result is a
blank look from you. I fit right into this type of audience. I liked "Die Hard 2: Die
Harder" and "The Lost World" a lot because they're exactly what I wanted to
see in the sequel. I also liked "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" a lot
for the same reason.
What is "Austin Powers: The
Spy Who Shagged Me" about? (Blank look) Uh…it's really about nothing much. Dr.
Evil travels back in time to the 60's when Austin Powers was cryogenically frozen and
stole Austin Powers' "mojo" (the essence of Austin's manhood). Austin Powers
must travel back in time to retrieve it because without it, he can't … uh …make
wild love to … women. And us guys all know how important that is. It's basically,
"Here's the good guy, there's the bad guy, she's the babe. Let the jokes fly!"
Like the Batman films, a handful of
new characters are introduced. Unlike the Batman films, the makers didn't try to make a
movie for each one of them. The movie mainly concentrates on three new characters - Dr.
Evil's clone Mini-Me, Austin's new love Felicity Shagwell, and Dr. Evil's new henchman Fat
Bastard - and made cameos of the rest (Tim Robbins, Woody Harrelson, Rob Lowe, Elizabeth
Hurley, Jerry Springer, and Willie Nelson). Of the three new characters, Mini-Me is
brilliant, Felicity Shagwell only works halfway, and Fat Bastard doesn't work at all.
Mini-Me is so darkly cute and innocently evil, it seems like he came straight out of a Tim
Burtin movie. His wrestling match with Austin Powers gave me a bellyache. Felicity
Shagwell seems out of place in this movie, but visually, she'll make any guy
"horny." Fat Bastard is not only unfunny, he's also offensive - there are lots
of reused, overdone fat jokes.
A lot of the jokes are recycled
from either the previous "Austin Powers" movie or other comedies with crude
humor ("The Naked Gun," "There's Something About Mary"). Most of them
still works - really well I must admit - but some jokes just don't work anymore. The
"I'm not dead yet" joke wasn't funny anymore, the "Shh!" joke still
barely works, the covering-up-private-parts gets more grotesque but still very funny. Do
you remember the lovemaking scene in "The Naked Gun 2 ½" where visual metaphors
were used to illustrate the lovemaking? Well, the same concept is applied here for a
"wiener" joke, except it's verbal. It's still very funny. There are a couple new
jokes; most of them are very crude. Of which, the ID4 and Jerry Springer parodies were the
funniest. Overall, fans of the first "Austin Powers" will love this one. It's
funnier, cruder, and more concentrated. (Senh Duong)
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AUSTIN POWERS PHOTOS
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