I was largely hoodwinked into seeing this, as it was very
popular at the US box office, where the original wasn't. So I thought
maybe it might be something of an improvement. The general consensus now
seems to be that it's much worse than the original. This movie has very little
plot, is mostly laughably acted (for the wrong reasons), is poorly directed,
has poor choreography, has a boring script, features many tired and inferior
repeats of ideas from the first movie, and isn't funny, unless you consider
someone drinking the faeces of a fat Scottish oaf who likes eating babies to be
funny.
The "plot" goes like this: Dr Evil, who's still having problems with
his son, is determined to destroy Austin Powers, so travels back in time and
steals his "mojo", with the help of the flatulent gargantuan porridge
eater Fat Bastard. This has no noticable effect on Powers, who nevertheless
goes back in time himself using a rival time machine developed by Basil
Exposition (just what the hell was Michael York doing in this role??),
stops Dr Evil and his plan to hold the world to ransom with a giant laser, and
makes out with a few women (including CIA agent Felicity Shagwell, who must
surely be the most god-awful character ever conceived. It's just lucky that
Heather Graham isn't quite as bad an actress as Liz Hurley.) Oh yes, and Dr
Evil has a cloned smaller version of himself called Mini-Me, who I suppose is
just about acceptable. Also Tim Robbins is excellent as usual as the US
President, but that doesn't really count as he's only in it for about ten
seconds. The choreography as I say is pretty bad. Austin and Felicity dance a
few times, but are frankly crap at it, and the fight scenes on the Jerry
Springer show are poorly executed. The script was pretty bad, and would have
been even had I got all the pop culture references, which I didn't because
unfortunately I'm not twelve.
The most depressing thing about this movie is that everyone else in the theatre
appeared to be loving it, which raises the ugly prospect of further sequels.
Please, Mr Myers, don't. Actually though I have nothing against Mike Myers,
who's clearly raking in the cash. This movie is aimed at a particular type of
"person", who probably watches Jerry Springer and reads the Sun, and
has the innate stupidity necessary to endure this kind of rubbish without
feeling sick.
(no stars)
The Players:
Mike Myers as Austin Powers, Dr Evil and Fat Bastard
Heather Graham as Felicity Shagwell
Verne Troyer as Mini-Me
Michael York as Basil Exposition
and a host of almost universally useless others, with the exception of Tim
Robbins and Kristen Johnston
written by Ed in August 1999