Movie Review by Dr Kuma
Starring: Mike Myers, Beyonce Knowles, Michael York, Michael Caine
Director: Jay Roach
This latest instalment is worth seeing for the first 15 minutes alone. Like the BOND films it takes off, the pre credits are simply fantastic and it would spoil it if I went into it in too much detail – suffice to say, it has a few surprise ‘guest stars’. The only shame is that the movie itself suffers because this opening is so good the makers can’t possibly top it.
The story, well, plot, is that AP has to travel back to 1975 to trap the evil mastermind Goldmember (named after his love of gold went a little too far and he lost his ‘member’ in a smelting accident). Again, I don’t want to go too much into the plot, as it is so slight; it would spoil the outcome, even though it would take less than two lines. The cast is having a ball. The masterstroke of having Michael Caine as Austin’s dad is only topped by Beyonce Knowles as Foxy Cleopatra. This is easily the best transition to movies by a music star in recent years. She obviously loves the role and really does steal the show. Mike Myers is, as usual, excellent in the several different roles of Powers, Fat Bastard, Dr Evil and Goldmember. He is a master of accents who obviously has a very dark side to his sense of humour and this can be just a little jarring at times. The mole scenes are especially unfunny, although, as Myers said, based on fact (lets hope he didn’t work in a smelting factory too).
All in all this is very enjoyable nonsense and may even lay the ground for a fourth instalment. The only problem is it does seem ‘of its time’ already and it is difficult to make a pastiche of the BOND movies when they have done that themselves in some of the Roger Moore outings. Still, Austin Powers now seems to have his own genre and standing in the movie world, lets just hope he keeps his Mojo working and Mr Myers is not so lenient with the editing scissors next time.
Dr Kuma’s Verdict: The opening alone justifies a visit to this. How can you go wrong with a female character called Dixie Normous??
