The name's Powers... Austin Powers (Austin Powers - International Man Of Mystery (DVD))

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Austin Powers - International Man Of Mystery (DVD)
Date:	25/05/07 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Side-splittingly funny, brilliant fun

Disadvantages: Can be a bit childish, some jokes a bit drawn out, won't be to everyone's taste

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

What’s it about?
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Frozen since the 60s, British super spy Austin Powers is unfrozen in the 90s to do battle once more with his nemesis Dr Evil.

Who’s in it?
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This is, in many ways, Mike Myers’ film. As well as writing it, he plays both Austin Powers and Dr Evil. Although recognisably him in both disguises, he clearly is having a lot of fun and makes both parts sufficiently different to make them enjoyable. Dr Evil is all bumbling incompetence, whilst Austin Powers is a confident, strutting peacock. It’s a fun performance and perfectly captures the silly nature of the film.

Equally good is the support cast, particularly old hands Michael York as Basil Exposition and Robert Wagner as Dr Evil’s Number 2. Both are clearly having a blast in roles which send up their previous on-screen persona. Exposition, as his name suggests, is there to explain what little plot there is, whilst Robert Wagner has to suffer indignities at the hands of Dr Evil. Special mention, though, should go to Seth Green as Dr Evil’s son, resentful of his absent father. The interaction and misunderstandings between Evil Snr and Jnr is often hilarious.

The only person letting the side down is Liz Hurley as 90s secret agent Vanessa Kensington. Clearly, in true “Bond Girl” fashion Hurley was employed chiefly for her looks, not her acting skills. She woodenly stumbles her way through the film, speaking in an annoying plummy accent and is the only weak spot in an otherwise excellent cast.

Is it any good?
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Whether you like Austin Powers or not will depend on two things: firstly: do you get the humour?; secondly: have you watched lots of Bond films?

The humour is, for the most part, positively childish and juvenile. It’s the sort of thing that teenage boys find hilarious – full of poo, bum and other gags relating to bodily functions. It is unashamedly immature. In fact, at times, it makes the Carry On films look like they were directed by Bergman! So, your enjoyment of the film will very much rest on how much you are willing to let your mind roll into the gutter and cover itself in whatever it finds!

It does go beyond that, though. There are lots of fun film spoofs and skits – particularly (obviously) the James Bond series. If you’ve ever sat there watching a James Bond film, thinking “that’s just silly”, then you’ll find Austin Powers appealing too. Dr Evil’s rant at not being allowed sharks with laser beams is particularly funny, as is Scott Evil’s berating of his father for always putting Powers in an overly-elaborate death trap, instead of just shooting him. However, whilst poking fun at the Bond films, it’s clear that Myers is also a huge fan and Austin Powers is a comedy homage to them.

There are also lots of other scenes which rely on spoofing other films or popular culture for laughs. Again, how funny you find these will depend on whether or not you get the references. Yet some of the original scenes are amongst the best in the film. In particular, the bar scene where the impact of Powers’ killing of evil henchmen is considered is inspired. For me, though, the best moment in the film has to be the scene where Powers is trying to turn a big truck around in a narrow corridor. It’s just inspired lunacy of the highest order – the absurdity of the whole film just summed up in one sequence!

The film is also relatively short at just less than 100 minutes. As such, you don’t really have time to get bored with it and start thinking how stupid it all is. The jokes come thick and fast, so the film just flies by, pulling you along in its wake.

On the downside, however, the humour can be a little wearing at times. Occasionally it can be a little too childish and Myers sometimes doesn’t seem to know when enough is enough. A couple of times, you do feel stretches a couple of the running gags to breaking point and beyond, and wish he would move on to something else. Some of the jokes are very similar in nature, and after a while, they become a bit wearing. A little bit more variety in the humour would have been welcome. After all, Airplane! (probably Powers’ closest relative), even though it was a very silly film, had lots of different types of gags – film spoofs, word play, puns, visual gags etc. which is what made it so brilliant. Powers, on the other hand, relies mainly on two types of joke – ones involving bodily fluids and film spoofs.

The film is also a little uneven in pace and inconsistently funny. For every scene that will have you laughing out loud, there are others where you will only crack a smile. There’s a scatter-gun approach to the humour – chuck everything at the screen and see what sticks. A slightly tighter and more focussed script might have helped make a more consistently funny film. You can’t help feel that the characters are still developing and haven’t yet become as rounded as they need to be to make a classic comedy.

Finally, of course, you can bemoan the lack of anything approaching a sensible plot. Whilst this is a slightly unfair criticism (a bit like criticising a fish for not breathing oxygen), there is some mileage in it. Because there is no real plot of which to speak, the film does occasionally feel like it is meandering along, with no real destination in mind. As with the humour, a more tightly scripted plot would perhaps have helped make the film slightly more entertaining.

Conclusion
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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is, undoubtedly a funny film, in a juvenile, silly kind of way. It’s not clever humour, relying as it does on toilet humour, but it is funny. When it gets it right, it’s side-splittingly funny. However, it won’t be to everyone’s taste and the humour is a little too hit and miss to make it a great film.

Basic Information
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Austin Powers: international man of mystery
1997
Director: Jay Roach
Running time: approximately 94 minutes
Certificate: 15

Trivia
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Myers wrote this film because he wanted to write something for himself which he thought his dad (who had recently died) would like. He never dreamed it would become such a success!

© Copyright SWSt 2007

Summary: One of the best Bond spoofs