The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
When Austin Powers first came out, everybody loved it. Fresh, yet familiar. Smart, yet slapstick. Above all, hilarious. It appealed to grown-ups and kids alike, with its enthusiasm, sillyness, and visual humour.
It was only a matter of time before the sequel came, and when The Spy Who Shagged Me landed, complete with a new plot, a new Mike Myers character (Fat B*stard) and a new clone 1/8th of Dr Evil's size (Mini Me), the fans lapped it up...however, it was not quite as good as number one. We all know the trend is for the third movie in a trilogy to be the worst one, but did Goldmember buck the trend?
Enough of the fanfare introduction, you clicked on this subject to read an Austin Powers 3 review and by golly, I'll give it to ya!
I knew what I wanted, going into the film. I wanted to laugh. Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of Mini Me (and I seem to be in the true minority with that), or Fat B*stard for that matter (I've grown out of the toilet humour phase, y'see), and was decidedly apprehensive when I saw trailers. Goldmember, the eponymous villain, is another Myers-based mastermind; this time, though, he's from Holland. Just listening to a few lines made me cringe...but that's nothing compared to when I saw the female lead...
That's right, the fit one from Destiny's Child, Beyonce Knowles, made her big screen debut as Foxy Cleopatra, a dancer at Goldmember's club in the 70's. In the previews, she sits beside Austin in his Shaguar and spouts, in an incredibly annoying way: "I'm a WHOOOOLE LOTTA WOMAN!" Talking to my friends, online and off, I became more and more convinced that AP3 would be terrible because of Ms Knowles. I was ruining the film for myself, by already believing it was bad not having seen any more than 2 minutes of clips.
I should never have worried. That seemed to be the only scene where Foxy spoke like that (thankfully), and save for her putting "sugar" at the end of every other sentence, I was not in the last bit perturbed. Goldmember does not have a huge role in the film, but there are bits of his character not revealed in the film...like his athletic prowess, and skin peeling...and chewing(!) which make him quite funny.
The story, as you may have heard, centres around the kidnapping of Austin Powers' father, Nigel Powers. He is used as a bargaining chip to keep Austin at bay whilst Dr Evil, in conjunction with Goldmember, readies to flood Earth by melting the ice caps. The great bit is: Nigle Powers is played by none other than MICHAEL CAINE. He plays the part to self-parody perfection, every bit as suave and sophistacted and sexy (*cough* well, the girls like him. I don't...uh...) as his 'son'. There are other elements, such as the two double agents, one of which is The Mole (played by that kid from the Wonder Years). His scenes were some of the funniest, with Austin Powers, Dr Evil and Mini Me all gawping at his huge mole ("Nice to mole you...meet you. Your mole. DON'T SAY MOLE!")...and there's a few Fat B*stard appearances, which did not change my opinion of him at all (even though, in the last scene, he gets the best line of the film).
Austin Powers was for Austin. The Spy Who Shagged Me was Dr Evils...but Goldmember finds the right balance. There are the customary running jokes (Dr Evil and Scotty's 'shush/zip it' shtick comes to mind), and sublime sight gags (the water fountain part will have you in stitches, as will the examination scene). Scotty's character grows from 'that kid that's quite funny' to a possible main player if there is an Austin Powers 4 (trying not to give away too much here), and Mini Me is involved in not only more funny bits, but more brilliant 'fight' scenes.
As per usual, Dr Evil gets most of the best bits, be it rapping with Mini Me in prison, making corny jokes or reminiscing about Belgium, but all of the characters make you laugh at some point, which doesn't happen all that often in films these days. Alright, so some of the father/son bits are stupid, and like Minority Report, the end is considerably weaker than the rest...but go see this film. It may not be quite as brilliant as AP1, but it's close. Righting the 'wrong' that was TSWSM, Goldmember raises the bar on Bond spoofs. Heck, I might go and see it again just for that brilliant first ten minutes...I haven't even spoken about it, as I don't really want to ruin it for you all. Suffice to say that Goldmember is a very funny film, one of the funniest films of 2002.
So go on, pop down to the Odeon, or UGC, or wherever, and get a ticket. You'll laugh at the jokes, you'll drool over Beyonce's bikinis, and remember why you want to be an International Man of Mystery.
Thanks for reading.
-El Swandre
It was only a matter of time before the sequel came, and when The Spy Who Shagged Me landed, complete with a new plot, a new Mike Myers character (Fat B*stard) and a new clone 1/8th of Dr Evil's size (Mini Me), the fans lapped it up...however, it was not quite as good as number one. We all know the trend is for the third movie in a trilogy to be the worst one, but did Goldmember buck the trend?
Enough of the fanfare introduction, you clicked on this subject to read an Austin Powers 3 review and by golly, I'll give it to ya!
I knew what I wanted, going into the film. I wanted to laugh. Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of Mini Me (and I seem to be in the true minority with that), or Fat B*stard for that matter (I've grown out of the toilet humour phase, y'see), and was decidedly apprehensive when I saw trailers. Goldmember, the eponymous villain, is another Myers-based mastermind; this time, though, he's from Holland. Just listening to a few lines made me cringe...but that's nothing compared to when I saw the female lead...
That's right, the fit one from Destiny's Child, Beyonce Knowles, made her big screen debut as Foxy Cleopatra, a dancer at Goldmember's club in the 70's. In the previews, she sits beside Austin in his Shaguar and spouts, in an incredibly annoying way: "I'm a WHOOOOLE LOTTA WOMAN!" Talking to my friends, online and off, I became more and more convinced that AP3 would be terrible because of Ms Knowles. I was ruining the film for myself, by already believing it was bad not having seen any more than 2 minutes of clips.
I should never have worried. That seemed to be the only scene where Foxy spoke like that (thankfully), and save for her putting "sugar" at the end of every other sentence, I was not in the last bit perturbed. Goldmember does not have a huge role in the film, but there are bits of his character not revealed in the film...like his athletic prowess, and skin peeling...and chewing(!) which make him quite funny.
The story, as you may have heard, centres around the kidnapping of Austin Powers' father, Nigel Powers. He is used as a bargaining chip to keep Austin at bay whilst Dr Evil, in conjunction with Goldmember, readies to flood Earth by melting the ice caps. The great bit is: Nigle Powers is played by none other than MICHAEL CAINE. He plays the part to self-parody perfection, every bit as suave and sophistacted and sexy (*cough* well, the girls like him. I don't...uh...) as his 'son'. There are other elements, such as the two double agents, one of which is The Mole (played by that kid from the Wonder Years). His scenes were some of the funniest, with Austin Powers, Dr Evil and Mini Me all gawping at his huge mole ("Nice to mole you...meet you. Your mole. DON'T SAY MOLE!")...and there's a few Fat B*stard appearances, which did not change my opinion of him at all (even though, in the last scene, he gets the best line of the film).
Austin Powers was for Austin. The Spy Who Shagged Me was Dr Evils...but Goldmember finds the right balance. There are the customary running jokes (Dr Evil and Scotty's 'shush/zip it' shtick comes to mind), and sublime sight gags (the water fountain part will have you in stitches, as will the examination scene). Scotty's character grows from 'that kid that's quite funny' to a possible main player if there is an Austin Powers 4 (trying not to give away too much here), and Mini Me is involved in not only more funny bits, but more brilliant 'fight' scenes.
As per usual, Dr Evil gets most of the best bits, be it rapping with Mini Me in prison, making corny jokes or reminiscing about Belgium, but all of the characters make you laugh at some point, which doesn't happen all that often in films these days. Alright, so some of the father/son bits are stupid, and like Minority Report, the end is considerably weaker than the rest...but go see this film. It may not be quite as brilliant as AP1, but it's close. Righting the 'wrong' that was TSWSM, Goldmember raises the bar on Bond spoofs. Heck, I might go and see it again just for that brilliant first ten minutes...I haven't even spoken about it, as I don't really want to ruin it for you all. Suffice to say that Goldmember is a very funny film, one of the funniest films of 2002.
So go on, pop down to the Odeon, or UGC, or wherever, and get a ticket. You'll laugh at the jokes, you'll drool over Beyonce's bikinis, and remember why you want to be an International Man of Mystery.
Thanks for reading.
-El Swandre
Page:
the funniest bit was micheal caine vs the extras
i saw it today and thought it was good, the ending could have been better but lets wait for Austin powers 4 next year :-)
Longster wrote:
> I still why people can't see how funny it was, it was really funny i
> think you just had to watch instead of thinking or maybe you are a
> bigger Austin Powers fan than me and was antisipating it for too long
> or something
I think the reason I was disappointed in it was because I had seen the first 2 so many times. I have had them both on DVD for a very long time so I have watched both of them a ridiculous amount of times. Since number 3 was pretty much identical to number 2, which in turn was pretty much identical to number 1, I just thought all the jokes in number 3 were so old. It had some new things in it which had me in tears, but most of it wasn't new to me at all.
> I still why people can't see how funny it was, it was really funny i
> think you just had to watch instead of thinking or maybe you are a
> bigger Austin Powers fan than me and was antisipating it for too long
> or something
I think the reason I was disappointed in it was because I had seen the first 2 so many times. I have had them both on DVD for a very long time so I have watched both of them a ridiculous amount of times. Since number 3 was pretty much identical to number 2, which in turn was pretty much identical to number 1, I just thought all the jokes in number 3 were so old. It had some new things in it which had me in tears, but most of it wasn't new to me at all.
Insane Bartender wrote:
> personally, I thought the second film was the best n the series, with
> the first and third being an even second.
I still why people can't see how funny it was, it was really funny i think you just had to watch instead of thinking or maybe you are a bigger Austin Powers fan than me and was antisipating it for too long or something
> personally, I thought the second film was the best n the series, with
> the first and third being an even second.
I still why people can't see how funny it was, it was really funny i think you just had to watch instead of thinking or maybe you are a bigger Austin Powers fan than me and was antisipating it for too long or something
Why the hell do you argue a pointless debate for the sake of it, IB? You just disagree for the sake of it, whatever the answer is. Sod off. You're just like that gimp Lord H.
Math has a right and wrong answer.
Opinions don't (at least, the sort we're talking about). Opinions usually have reasons behind them. If these reasons are used to back up said opinion, and are ridiculous (like 'girls like being raped') the false information will be corrected).
Opinions don't (at least, the sort we're talking about). Opinions usually have reasons behind them. If these reasons are used to back up said opinion, and are ridiculous (like 'girls like being raped') the false information will be corrected).
Opinions are based on input, be it environmental and experience, conversational or through advertising/media. Any of these can skew your opinion to the point where it is quite simply wrong.
I am sure that people will believe what they want to believe, but without the correct information, what they want to believe is different to what they might otherwise believe were they better informed.
lah lah lah.
Information makes the world go round, you get the wrong information, the world might start going the wrong way. They say "what you don't know can't hurt you", when in fact more often than not, it's what you don't know that can hurt you the most.
I am sure that people will believe what they want to believe, but without the correct information, what they want to believe is different to what they might otherwise believe were they better informed.
lah lah lah.
Information makes the world go round, you get the wrong information, the world might start going the wrong way. They say "what you don't know can't hurt you", when in fact more often than not, it's what you don't know that can hurt you the most.
Erk, opinions have to be self based. "All women love to be raped" isn't exactly self based. But never mind. Same with the maths thing. You've just had false information. "I prefer eating cheese to being kicked in the spleen." is an opinion.
Going to see this tomorrow, I think.
Going to see this tomorrow, I think.
El Swandre wrote:
> Isn't that just a misinformed opinion, rather than a wrong one IB?
Think simply. If it's ill-informed, is it correct? Yes or no?
Say for example you believe that rape is a good thing, because some idiotic people have informed you that women like it really, and after asking women and failing to see the sarcasm in the responses you recieved, this view was re-inforced. Now, do you not agree that this opinion is wrong on every concievable level beyond barbarism? If the person were better informed, they wouldn't think as such.
It's a bad example, but I can't be bothered thinking of a decent one for something this obvious.
Put it this way: Your in a maths exam, you've kind of forgotten how to answer a particular question, but you remember a friend saying his method of how to do it. So you do it that way. Turns out that your friend was wrong. You can try and argue that your answer was merely ill-informed, but at the end of the day, it was just wrong.
> Isn't that just a misinformed opinion, rather than a wrong one IB?
Think simply. If it's ill-informed, is it correct? Yes or no?
Say for example you believe that rape is a good thing, because some idiotic people have informed you that women like it really, and after asking women and failing to see the sarcasm in the responses you recieved, this view was re-inforced. Now, do you not agree that this opinion is wrong on every concievable level beyond barbarism? If the person were better informed, they wouldn't think as such.
It's a bad example, but I can't be bothered thinking of a decent one for something this obvious.
Put it this way: Your in a maths exam, you've kind of forgotten how to answer a particular question, but you remember a friend saying his method of how to do it. So you do it that way. Turns out that your friend was wrong. You can try and argue that your answer was merely ill-informed, but at the end of the day, it was just wrong.
Insane Bartender wrote:
>
> Wrong, opinions can be ill-informed, and therefore incorrect.
--
Oh shut up.
>
> Wrong, opinions can be ill-informed, and therefore incorrect.
--
Oh shut up.
Page: