Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

HE'S BACK, HE'S EVEN BIGGER AND HE'S UP FOR IT!

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was a pretty big deal. Although its theatrical take is generally regarded as modest (apparently making $68 million from a $16 million budget is modest), it found even greater success on the rental market, and its cultural impact was massive. For those of you who weren’t there for it, after the film came out you couldn’t turn a corner without someone firing off one of the dozens of catchphrases at you. It was huge. Given that this was the case, a sequel was guaranteed to arrive, giving the world another crack at the abundantly toothy spy. Two years after the first, that sequel arrived – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Austin Powers (Mike Myers) returns to action after he discovers his wife Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) is a fem-bot, created by Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) to assassinate him. When Powers survives, Dr. Evil travels back in time to 1969 and he steals Austin’s Mojo. Travelling back to 1969, Austin teams up with CIA agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) to recover Austin’s mojo and stop Dr. Evil from wiping out Washington DC with a moon-based laser gun.

By now, we’re all aware of the rules regarding sequel escalation, where the follow-up to a successful film has to be bigger, give more, be more outrageous. Hell, just look at the tagline up there. That is most definitely the case with The Spy Who Shagged Me, in which even the title is allowed to be more risqué. The title itself caused something of a stir in the build up to the film’s release. Adverts and posters were somewhat censored, hoping to avoid offence at the carnal suggestion. It was also changed in various countries, some looking to downplay or alter the meaning (Finland’s version translated as The Spy Who Bumped Me), whilst some seemed to drop the pretence altogether (Norway’s version translated as The Spy Who Ejaculated on Me). Regardless, it’s a pretty obvious indication that the film was given a freer hand to try and recapture the old magic.

The inspiration for the film still comes from the various Bond movie's tropes and clichés, all geared towards making the film bigger and wackier. Dr. Evil now has a base inside a volcano, as well as a secret base on the Moon. He now also has a huge destructive laser cannon, with which he plans to hold the world to ransom once more. As with the first film, there are other sources for comedy here. For example, a highly suggestive game of chess parodies the one from the original 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair. Also, a number of jokes refer directly to Star Wars (Death Star, Dr. Evil’s claim that he is Austin’s father, some design elements of the Moon base). All of these shows a distinct eye not just for the 60s era in which the film is predominantly set, but also for the year of the film’s release. The Thomas Crown Affair was remade and released in 1999, being released two months after The Spy Who Shagged Me. Also, the much-anticipated Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace got its release in 1999, leading to many publicity jokes. One of the trailers announced, “If you only see one movie this summer, see Star Wars. But if you see two movies, see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” Myers clearly still shows some talent for parody.

The actual film itself does, if we’re honest, suffer a little bit from this newfound licence to be bigger. The introduction of time travel, which will allow Austin to travel back to the 60s, is always a thorny thing to introduce, simply because it can automatically destroy the logic of the film. Also, it can feel a bit cynical to use it at times (“What do we do to make this new film better?…… uh, time travel?...... Okay.”). Myers and co. are obviously aware of this, with Austin trying to follow the potential paradoxes offered before Basil Exposition tells him not to think about it, and then informs the audience to do the same. Yes, they know that pretty much none of what we’re about to see makes any sense, but they want you to just enjoy the ride. I’m often very wary of films that do this, but if it’s a fun ride, then I can get over it.

New things to come from this film are the introduction of three new characters. Taking the place of Miss Kensington as Austin’s partner is Felicity Shagwell, played by Heather Graham. Given the respect Austin developed for monogamy in the first film, as well as him being Mojo-jacked, it's a good reversal of relationship as Felicity is everything that Vanessa wasn’t. She’s as highly-sexed as Austin, and always ready for a proverbial tumble. In fact, she introduces herself as Felicity Shagwell, “Shagwell by name, shag very well by reputation.” Another new face is Dr. Evil’s clone, Mini Me, played by Verne Troyer. Mini Me is another fine comic creation from Myers, with the two playing of each other very well, and serves to appropriately further disrupt the relationship between Dr. Evil and his son Scott, which continues to be strained (a great scene at the beginning has both of them appear on an episode of Jerry Springer, which inevitably ends in a massive fight). The third is another character that Myers plays himself, the enormous and appropriately named Fat Bastard, a disgruntled Scots Guard who works for Dr. Evil. As much as Myers is an anglophile, he is also rather obsessed with Scotland. As such, Scottish characters have a way of surfacing fairly regularly in his work (So I Married an Ax Murder, Shreck). Fat Bastard is a grotesque individual, weighing a metric tonne and claims to eat babies, hence some carnivorous intentions towards Mini Me.

Everyone in the cast does well, with Myers giving just as much to his roles here as he did the first one. Heather Graham is a bit more convincing than Liz Hurley was in her role, but there are still moments that you see her drop character. There is a great turn from Rob Lowe, who returns here in a more substantial part, as Number Two circa 1969. Effectively playing a young Robert Wagner, he gets everything right, from the walk to the precise timbre of Wagner’s voice, though he still makes it his own.

The film itself is still a lot of fun, and the jokes still fly with a great regularity. The two sequences where people describe Dr. Evil’s rocket ship (“What is that? It looks just like an enormous... Wang! Pay attention.... Sorry, I was distracted by that giant flying... Willie!... Yeah?... What’s that?... Well, that looks like a huge... Johnson!... Yes, sir?”) is very funny, even though you feel like it shouldn’t. The moment with Dr. Evil losing control of his chair is great, as is his Mojo-fuelled seduction of Frau Farbissina.

However, there is a little less of the wit that shone through the original. There isn’t really anything like the scenes exploring the life of an evil henchman. Also, many of the jokes here are repeats of the originals, with just a slight tweak to make them work. It’s rather splitting hairs to come down against them, but it’s still indicative of a less intelligent take on the genre. Other jokes rely on more crude humour, such as the tent scene (although that’s still pretty funny.) or the whole character of Fat Bastard. The Spy Who Shagged Me seems to have lowered its standards a bit in order to capitalise on having a wider audience than the first film. As it is, it worked. This film made more money in the first weekend than its predecessor did in total, seeing it through to a final take that was over four times that of the last one. That’s some pretty good business.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is about as funny as the original, although it does lack much of the cleverness that showed up in the first film, and the story isn’t as tight as it should be (something most time travel films must deal with). Nevertheless, there is still a lot of fun to be had, with more parodic swings at the spy genre, new absurd comic creations and a freer sense of whimsy about it. I’d rather it held to the shrewdness of the first, but it’s still some fine entertainment.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

IF HE WERE ANY COOLER, HE'D STILL BE FROZEN, BABY!

Mike Myers has always been something of an Anglophile. Both of his parents were British, born in Liverpool, who then moved to Canada, where Mike and his brothers were born. The British influence was always something Mike felt growing up, with a regular exposure to Monty Python and British spy thrillers from the 60s and 70s. In fact, although still a proud Canadian, when asked in interviews, he has been know to say that he considers himself British. Four years after his sequel to Wayne’s World, Mike was given a chance to fully explore his love of the British popular culture by writing and starring in a parody of the classic spy thrillers that he grew up watching with his family. Thus, the eternal battle between Austin Powers and Dr. Evil was released into the world.

In 1967, British hipster secret agent Austin Powers (Mike Myers) hunts his nemesis Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) down, only for villain to launch himself into space in a cryogenics tube. Powers is in turn frozen should Dr. Evil return. 30 years later, Austin is thawed and put back into action when Dr. Evil resurfaces in Nevada and steals a nuclear weapon to hold the world hostage. Along with his new sidekick Miss Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), his ex-partner’s daughter, they head out to save the world.

In setting up the world of Austin Powers, Myers has drawn on several very rich sources for inspiration. Primarily a parody of the James Bond films of the 60s and 70s, there are glimpses of other points of influence. Austin’s sex-obsessed nature and love of a double entendre shows nods towards the Carry On films; his distinctive look comes from a melding of Michael Caine and the character of Jason King; the frequent jumps to brief musical interludes is drawn from A Hard Day’s Night and The Monkees television show; and there’s even a sequence in the credits that apes Blow-Up. Effectively, Myers has cast a wide net across all of the most outrageous aspects of London’s Swinging 60s image and dragged them all in for his own brand of comedy and wit.

The characters are absolutely superb, too. Austin Powers is a potent distillation of every gawdy, ridiculous and overblown excess of Swinging 60s era London. He is every inch a man of his time, right down the crushed velvet suit and love of Burt Bacharach. And he possesses all the capability of an international man of mystery. Hell, his middle name is actually Danger. What’s really great is that, for all of his obsession with sex and puns, Myers hasn’t forgotten the flipside to his hero. That Powers is so a man of his time, but now exists completely outside of it, there’s something pointing in the direction of pathos in him. It doesn’t last long, but it’s nice to see that Myers has treated Powers as more than just a perpetual joke.

And Dr. Evil is a creation of comedy gold. An absurd twist on major Bond villain Blofeld, Dr. Evil’s position of menace is regularly undercut by the most basic, and therefore hilarious, foibles. He can’t even sit in his chair without rolling away from the table, forcing him to awkwardly pull himself back to his position at the head of his table of minions. And that he’s so completely set in his ways that when his son points out his highly inefficient and illogical manner of working, he responds with exasperation, telling him “you just don’t get it, do you?” And while we’re on the subject, every scene with his son, Scott Evil, is superb. Dr. Evil wants his boy to take over the family business, but Scott, dealing with some major abandonment issues, just wants to be left alone. The scene where the two attend a group therapy session to try and build a relationship is brilliant for its simplicity and its absurdity, as well as the Carrie Fisher cameo. Mike Myers plays both Austin and Dr. Evil to an absolute tee, with nary a hint of losing character or cracking up.

The rest of film is littered with great characters, played with a great sense of the comedy pitch on show. A spot on Michael York embodies the brilliantly named Basil Exposition. Dr. Evil’s minions are equally well handled, like Mindy Sterling’s severe Frau Farbissina, or Robert Wagner’s utterly deadpan Number Two, or Seth Green as the angsty Scott. Elizabeth Hurley proves herself a good sport as Miss Kensington, although she is the weakest performance on show… but then she looks great in a leather catsuit, so we can’t judge too harshly. Even the lesser characters provide some genuine laughs, like the Irish assassin who wants to know why everyone always laughs when he says the police are “always after me lucky charms”; or Dr. Evil’s personal bodyguard, the shoe-throwing henchman Random Task. When I first saw this film, that name was strangely one of things that I laughed at most.

This is a genuinely clever movie, with evidence of a great sharpness to the whole. For example, Dr. Evil’s plans for world domination are initially deflated by changing world events, all of which he is completely unaware. As such, he simply resorts to the old stock plan of stealing nuclear weapons and holding the world hostage. It's small, but it is very effective. He can’t even get his ransom demands right, asking for $1 million or he'll destroy the world, for which he receives unanimous hysterical laughter from the UN delegates he’s threatening. There are also the really great scenes that offer the alternate perspectives on the genre, with glimpses into the family lives of some of Dr. Evil’s henchmen, the latter of which holds another of film’s great cameos, this time from Rob Lowe. It’s scenes like this that show an active engagement with the material and the attempt to present it in a new way. Ultimately, that’s what makes this film so successful as a parody. Parody films today think that it’s enough to simply point out the generic flaws of its target with cynical derision, because being a sarcastic hipster ass is funny, right? Austin Powers has enough respect for the source of its inspiration to absorb itself in that world, looking for comedy in areas that no one really thought of before and presenting it in a way that’s both sincere and hilarious.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery still has most, if not all of its jokes and quips firmly set in place. It’s a great mix of over-the-top buffoonery and genuinely clever send-ups of the spy genre staples, and it’s all done with a clear affection for its points of inspiration. It also holds two superb turns from Myers as Powers and Dr. Evil, and Elizabeth Hurley in a leather catsuit. Really, this is one of the great comedies of the 90s, and there is still so much to love about it.