CineBad!!!

I actually liked this movie a lot better than the first Austin Powers flick. The first dwells really heavily on all of Austin’s personal quirks, which weren’t all that funny to begin with, in order to cover up a major absence of plot. Plus, the nineties vs. sixties thing really got on my nerves after awhile. And you can only watch Dr Evil put his pinky up to his mouth so many times. Anyway, I was majorly disappointed, because I’ve long been a fan of 007’s cheesy hijinx, and I thought Austin Powers would be a sort of clever, tongue-in-cheek satire. Oh, well.

Anyway, as I just said, I liked this movie a lot better. If they were to actually erase the original Austin Powers flick from the face of the earth, and make this the new, original Austin Powers movie, I’d be really happy. There’s nothing about the first film you won’t pick up on by the first ten minutes. It’s still not really the witty satire I had hoped it would be, but at least now they pushed the envelope so far that the corny sight gags actually work, rather than being merely irritating. I was laughing out loud in the theater, and I’m usually pretty hardcore when it comes to stuff like that!

Dr Evil somehow escapes being frozen in space (they didn’t really explain this, but whatever) and flies back to Earth in a giant aluminum egg. Meanwhile, Scott Evil, his disappointingly mild son, is making a guest appearance on the Jerry Springer show. Jerry goes backstage and… surprise! It’s your dad, Dr Evil. Big E picks a fight with some audience members and some fake chairs get broken across people’s backs. The Pentagon catches this on their worldwide surveillance system and sounds the alarm.

This time, Dr Evil travels back in time to steal Austin Power’s “mojo” from his frozen body. There’s his henchman, Fat Bastard, who is a major Cheap Laugh (although he has bagpipes which leak nerve gas– cool!) and his dwarfish clone, Mini-Me. The sibling rivalry between Scott and Min-Me is actually pretty amusing at times. There’s also a romantic subplot between Dr Evil and his henchwoman, Frau Farbissina. (Apparently, there’s also a romantic subplot between Dr Evil’s other henchdude, Number Two and Dr Evil’s other henchdude, Number Two– his 1990’s and 1960’s versions– except they cut it out of the major release! Watch for this on video!)

Actually, Dr Evil is a lot more interesting than Austin Himself, and I was totally rooting for him at the end. Dr Evil has more shifts in character, much better dialogue, and is basically much, much cooler. Frau Farbissina is just too cute with her little spit curls, and Mini-Me’s totally deadpan performance saves the character from becoming a lame merchandising gimmick. The Austin character is way too over-hyped to have any kind of subtlety, but the Evil Nemesis archetype is a lot less obvious and Mike Meyers has more room to explore his character. Basically, Evil wins out for me.

Anyway, if you never saw the original film, I would say: don’t bother. Go out and see The Spy Who Shagged Me at the theater; it’s worth it. I still dream of one day making my own Bond-esque spy flick, which would be totally sly and deadpan and feature really bad actors taking themselves very, very seriously, and terrible special effects… anyway, until you see me rubbing elbows with George Lucas at a Planet Hollywood opening, go check out Austin Powers II instead!