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Director: Jay Roach Screenplay: Mike Myers & Michael McCullers Starring: Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Robert Wagner, Gia Carides, Seth Green, Rob Loew, Verne Troyer, Elizabeth Hurley Running Time: 95 minutes Studio: New Line Cinema MPAA Rating: PG-13 |
(NOTE: The following review has been de-Austinized for your protection. It is now mercifully free of shagadelic, yeah baby language. You're welcome.)
A minor hit in 1995, Austin Powers pulled in $54 million on an $18 million budget. It entered a number of phrases into the public lexicon while slyly spoofing the James Bond movies as well as other spy spoofs like In Like Flint, Casino Royale, Matt Helm, and that crazy atomic bikini movie starring Vincent Price. Austin Powers was a cartoon Michael Caine (circa his Alfie days), Dr. Evil was Blofeld redux, and the movie was as silly a satire of '60s pop culture as it was of all things Bondian.
Where the phenomenon really exploded was on home video, becoming an immediate hot seller upon release and remaining in the top ten since then. And though hugely popular, fans couldn't find related merchandise anywhere.
All of that has changed, of course -- New Line Cinema, smelling a franchise hit of immense proportions, has poured a reported $30 million into the sequel, and who knows how many millions into the smart, funny advertising campaign that began in late 1998 with a trailer that borrowed liberally from the Star Wars universe of hype. "If you see one movie next summer," the narrator intoned, "See Star Wars. But if you see two movies, see Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me." The hype is working -- combined efforts from New Line, Visa, Heineken, Starbucks and others have pushed opening weekend receipts to a projected total over $60 million, sure to shove The Phantom Menace out of the top spot and make an instant profit. Star Mike Myers and director Jay Roach have told Entertainment Weekly that they have no interest in making a second sequel, but box office numbers will surely change their tune.
All that said, is AP2 worth the hype? The answer is a qualified "Maybe."
The basic plot: Dr. Evil travels back to 1969 to steal Austin Powers' mojo. (Read: his sexual prowess, his libido.) The pinky-sucking villain has invented a time machine -- never mind how -- and, surprise surprise, so has M.O.D., the Ministry of Defence. Powers travels through time in a decked-out VW Beetle (the model came back just in time, didn't it?) resembling the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Back in '69, Powers teams with CIA agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) -- Shagwell by name, Shag very well by reputation -- to recover his mojo and foil the evil doctor's plot to blow up Washington, D.C., with a moon-based laser.
