Austin Powers: Goldmember (2002)

Despite symptoms of sequelitis, Austin Powers in Goldmember is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: for every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of redundant shtick, juvenile scatology, and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers--returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember--thrives by favoring comedic chaos over coherent plotting. Once they've tossed Austin into the disco fever of 1975 (where he's sent to rescue his father, gamely played by Michael Caine), Myers and director Jay Roach seem vaguely adrift with old and new characters, including Verne Troyer's Mini-Me and pop star Beyoncé Knowles as Pam Grier-ish blaxpo-babe Foxxy Cleopatra. A bit tired, perhaps, but Powers hasn't lost his mojo. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Funny

If you liked Austin Powers, then you will like this movie. But, it has some bad parts. August 6, 2008

Very Funny !

This is one of my favorite comedy movies ! All the trillogy are so good! August 1, 2008

Gilding the silly: Austin Powers in Goldmember

Say anything three times and it's funny, according to the secret rules of sure-fire comedy (the same rules that say the word "chicken" is unfailingly a rib-tickler). Austin Powers in Goldmember, Mike Myers's third incarnation of his gormless but irrepressible swinging sixties British spy, really is pretty funny.

After three movies and six years of the shagadelic, flouncy-shirted, buck-toothed homunculus and his ever-expanding cartoon world, it's become easier to surrender than resist. Place it against Men in Black or Mr. Deeds or any of a host of other barren summer comedies and the difference is obvious: Myers's sheer fertility of invention is of a different order, and even if he misses as often as he hits, he's definitely a swinger.

Even if the gag-to-wince ratio isn't high, there are enough punchlines thrown here to make a sphinx smirk. Father, forgive me, I must confess: I sprayed my popcorn.

Powers, the self-adoring spy whom Myers says he invented one day while riding back from hockey practice and listening to Dusty Springfield sing The Look of Love on the radio, is not so much a spy spoof (the sixties were already crawling with spy spoofs) as nostalgic sixties anglophilia: Think of it as James Bond crossed with the Carry-On Gang, or maybe Jerry Lewis imagining he's Cary Grant. The character(s) -- Myers plays four parts here, three of them villains -- finds that tightrope between enviable childish narcissism and obnoxiousness where much comedy struts.

The successor to the massive success of the $200-million second instalment of the series, The Spy Who Shagged Me, starts off with a large bang, and not, this time, of the sexual nature. Instead, it's a series of scenes from a film within the film, featuring a cast of stars way too famous to be named and an action stunt that should make the James Bond franchise pack up its product placements and go home.

Dr. Evil, Myers's best character, with his pinky-chewing and air quote signs and poor ability at higher numbers, takes centre stage early. Having found a way of taking his unscrupulous behaviour into legitimate business by taking over a Hollywood agency business (he charges just 9 per cent instead of the usual 10), he's stationed himself in a lair above the Hollywood sign and is concocting one of his usual plans to blackmail the world's leaders for a largish amount of money.

The entire evil cast (with the exception of the bald cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, who seems to have dropped out between trailer and movie) is back -- Dr. Evil's annoying son, Scott (Seth Green); Dr. Evil's silent clone, Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), who proves he has a mind of his own, and the rest of the Evil cast, including Number Two (Robert Wagner) and Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling). Myers hides himself under a couple of tonnes of makeup as an obese Scotsman, Fat Bastard, who is in love with his own body effluents.

Myers also plays a new Dutch villain called Johann Van Der Smut, a middle-aged seventies playboy nicknamed Goldmember (regrettable smelting accident), who enjoys roller-skating, disco dancing and eating strips of his overtanned skin.

The best piece of casting falls on the side of good, with Michael Caine as Nigel, Austin's swinging, and insufficiently paternal, spy dad. Caine (who himself played a bespectacled spy in The Ipcress File) looks the part, and turns on some real actor intensity, especially in his raging declaration that he hates intolerance and Dutch people.

Austin, for some reason, has to travel back to swinging Manhattan to "Studio 69," to rescue his dad, who has been captured by the evil Van Der Smut. There, he teams up with Pam Grier-inspired Foxxy Cleopatra, played by pop diva Beyoncé Knowles of Destiny's Child, who has great abs and a way of looking at Austin as if she just scraped him off the bottom of her platform shoes.

There's no doubt that Goldmember has its long flaccid stretches, and a good deal of repetition of familiar gags: shadow play, inadvertently obscene subtitles and an assortment of euphemisms for genitalia. At times, Myers's toilet-bowl humour overfloweth.

The strategy here is the basic Mel Brooks string o' gags school of comedy. While it's not high wit, it never stops trying and, occasionally, as in the prison-rap number inspired by Hard Knock Life from Annie, the results are inspired.

A flashback to Austin and Dr. Evil's early days at the Intelligence Academy, for example, shows a savvy such scenes rarely manage; the young actors are close enough physically to the adult characters, but what makes it work is Myers's dubbing in their adult voices.

Fourth-time Austin Powers is a spectre that can only arouse apprehension. No one can look forward to a bigger role for Van Der Smut (or bigger rolls for Fat Bastard). Who cares if Mini-Me decides to talk? But taking a page from the International Man of Mystery, let's not worry about the future when the present (and past) are groovy. When it comes to Austin Powers, three's a charm. Conrad Alton, Filmbay Editor. July 21, 2008

hillarious

This movie was really good and funny. it's not as funny as the first one but still good May 26, 2008

Mike Meyers does it again, yeah baby

Austin Powers in Goldmember is another great film in the shagadelic series. From the opening spoof AustinPussy one knows it's gonna be a great film. The jokes are on taregt , the script is witty and the cameos are great.Beyonce does a good acting job, despite what the critics said as her performances really just requires her to be eye candy. All in all a fun film. March 25, 2008

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