Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

This silly, sloppy, psychedelic spy-movie spoof stars and was writ-
ten by Mike Myers, who plays both the title character and his arch-
nemesis, Dr. Evil.  Both have been reawakened from suspended anima-
tion, to do battle in and begin adjusting to the nineties. (Powers 
has problems with political correctness, Baby, while Evil has to 
adjust his megalomaniac musings to accommodate inflation, ozone 
depletion, and Prince Charles' babe-o-matic ears.)  The credits 
sequence is pretty groovy, I'll give it that, but the rest of the 
movie contains no more than, oh, twenty minutes of bankable hilar-
ity.  The jokes are bad, the timing worse, and only the occasional 
sequence stands out, such as Myers walking around in the buff, with 
various objects in the frame concealing his naughty bits.  (Okay, 
I'll admit it:  I also howled at a sequence set in a public rest-
room, with Powers fending off an assassin's attack and Tom Arnold 
in the next stall, thinking that he's hearing a struggle of a dif-
ferent kind.)  The character of Austin Powers is, for all practical 
purposes, another classic Mike Myers' creation, but damned if his 
script has a clue what to do with him.  (Rated "PG-13"/87 min.)

Grade: C-

Copyright 1997 by Michael J. Legeros