Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me Review

This is not a clever film, but any movie that contains this many fart gags, a mug of steaming sh*t, and two scenes that list more euphemisms for the male member than you realise you know was obviously never meant to be. However the movie does break the first rule of sequels: it's actually better than the original.

The film starts as it means to go on, with a scene that takes one of the funniest ideas of the first movie even further (remember when Austin & Vannessa's modesty was hidden by a serious of more & more suggestive objects?), and also gives us a brief glimpse of Elizabeth Hurley, whose role as love (lust?) object for our hero is amply filled in this movie by Heather Graham as US spy Felicity Shagwell. As endearing & funny a character as uber-swinger Austin is however, the film's funniest scenes invariably revolve around Myer's performance as the camp world ruler wannabe Dr Evil, and his latest side kick the midget clone Mini-Me.

The deceptively simple idea of reversing the "60s into 90s" equation of the first film (with Austin & Dr Evil travelling back in time thirty-odd years) works well, especially when Dr Evil attempts to impress his cohorts with his genius & talent by laying claim to all sorts of cultural references that no one else has heard of, although it's hard to imagine a time when no one had heard of "Star Wars"!

Perhaps the success of "Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery" gave Mike Myers more confidence, or perhaps he's just the fine wine of current US comedy: the older he gets the better he is. Whatever the reason the fact remains that this is the funniest (live action) movie of the summer.