Austin
Powers:
International Man of Mystery |
DIRECTOR
Jay Roach
SCREENWRITER
Mike Myers
PRODUCERS
Demi Moore
Mike Myers
Jennifer Todd
Suzanne Todd
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Peter Deming
MUSIC
George S. Clinton
EDITORS
Dawn Hoggatt
Debra Neil-Fisher
CAST
Mike Myers (Austin Powers/Dr. Evil)
Elizabeth Hurley (Vanessa Kensington)
Michael York (Basil Exposition)
Mimi Rogers (Mrs. Kensington)
Robert Wagner (Number Two)
Seth Green (Scott Evil)
Fabiana Udenio (Alotta Fagina)
Mindy Sterling (Frau Farbissina)
Paul Dillon (Patty O'Brien)
Charles Napier (Commander Gilmour)
Will Ferrell (Mustafa)
Clint Howard (Radar Operator Ritter)
Joe Son (Random Task)
Burt Bacharach (Himself)
Tom Arnold (Guy in Bathroom)
Carrie Fisher (Therapist)
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running
time: 90m
U.S. release: May 2, 1997
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Official
website
Other Jay
Roach films
reviewed on this site:
- Austin
Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
- Austin
Powers in Goldmember
- Meet
the Parents
|
The
peak James Bond movies -- say, any of the original Sean Connery
entries, and maybe the first two Roger Moores -- couldn't have
been made in any other period except the mod '60s and groovy
early '70s. There were two British invasions, the Beatles and
Bond, and America went daft for a while. Our culture reflected
it, and the Bond movies, ever more gaudy and excessive, were
decadence on a grand scale. But the spy genre after Vietnam --
even the drum-tight GoldenEye
-- seemed glumly realistic, with largely colorless villains and
almost no sex.
Austin Powers, the new goofy-deadpan parody written by
and starring Mike Myers (Wayne's World), takes a page
from GoldenEye and asks what might happen if a smug, womanizing
secret agent from the '60s were transplanted to the politically
correct '90s. In GoldenEye, Bond was all too regretfully
aware of the shifts in sexual politics; Austin Powers, frozen
in 1967 and revived in 1997, remains blissfully ignorant. "Am
I making you randy, baby?" he asks a potential conquest,
imagining himself to be irresistible. As, in a sense, he is.
He's so cheerfully retro-sexist that he's almost a breath of
fresh air.
The movie is Mike Myers' valentine to the Bond films and '60s
Brit culture in general. The costume designers must have had
fun; this and Romy
and Michele's High School Reunion may spark a new trend
in form-hugging leather. Myers has more or less duplicated a
typical espionage plot: the Blofeldian villain Dr. Evil (also
played by Myers) steals a nuclear weapon and holds the world
hostage for $100 billion. The joke is that Dr. Evil, who'd also
been on ice for the last thirty years, was originally going to
demand $1 million -- big bucks in 1967.
You don't necessarily have to be familiar with the movies Myers
spoofs in order to enjoy Austin Powers, though it helps.
What I enjoyed more than the specific parodies was the spirit
behind them. Myers is reviving a style and sensibility that have
been frozen since, well, about 1967; when Austin Powers emerges
into 1997, he brings his era with him. This allows a few culture-clash
jokes, such as Dr. Evil attending group therapy with his genetically-engineered
offspring (the cynically funny Seth Green). At the end of this
scene, Dr. Evil launches into a childhood reminiscence that gets
increasingly bizarre; it sounds like classic Myers.
Elizabeth Hurley also turns up as a second-generation agent who
eventually climbs into an Emma Peel get-up, just like her mom
(Mimi Rogers), who was Austin's partner thirty years ago. Hurley
is about the right age to be the result of a forgotten "shag"
between Austin and his partner; Myers never plants this reverse-Oedipal
revelation, though I expected it.
Much of Austin Powers could have been lifted from Roger
Ebert's book of clichés; Ebert probably loved such touches
as Dr. Evil insisting on putting Austin in an elaborate death
trap that doesn't work. Mike Myers is slowly carving himself
a niche as the next Steve Martin (whose early comedies resemble
Myers'). He's an eager postmodern prankster -- a Jim Carrey who
can also write, and a Quentin Tarantino who can also act. |
