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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
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Isn't that just a misinformed opinion, rather than a wrong one IB?
As wookie said, the first five minutes were the best, and got the best laughs from the audience. But unlike the other two films, this one lacked something, perhaps it was because of thje re-used jokes, but it just didn't really do it for me.
Yes I laughed, but not as much as in the previous two. That left me feeling a bit cheated.
Yes I laughed, but not as much as in the previous two. That left me feeling a bit cheated.
personally, I thought the second film was the best n the series, with the first and third being an even second.
El Swandre wrote:
> Ugh, it was a joke. By definition, opinions can be neither right nor
> wrong.
Wrong, opinions can be ill-informed, and therefore incorrect.
> Ugh, it was a joke. By definition, opinions can be neither right nor
> wrong.
Wrong, opinions can be ill-informed, and therefore incorrect.
Why can't you people see the pure comedy value? it was hallerious just don't read into it, just listen to the jokes and watch the film i was in stitches. Ok the story line wasn't all that good but were the Austin Powers movies ever? they weren't about that
Well I have to say I was normously disappointed (ho ho ho).
I was never expecting it to be as good as the first 2 but I was expecting it to be identical yet again. However, whereas the second was still funny, I think I'd seen all the jokes a few too many times by the time I saw number 3.
There were a few moments that had me absolutely cracking up but there were also a few long periods where I went without a single laugh.
And there was absolutely no reason at all for Fat B*stard to be in there, other than for Mike Myers to play more characters than he did in the second. He wasn't a particularly funny character in the second film and his scenes in this were quite simply BORING!
Best bits were without doubt the opening and the bit where he was on the little fella's shoulders.
I was never expecting it to be as good as the first 2 but I was expecting it to be identical yet again. However, whereas the second was still funny, I think I'd seen all the jokes a few too many times by the time I saw number 3.
There were a few moments that had me absolutely cracking up but there were also a few long periods where I went without a single laugh.
And there was absolutely no reason at all for Fat B*stard to be in there, other than for Mike Myers to play more characters than he did in the second. He wasn't a particularly funny character in the second film and his scenes in this were quite simply BORING!
Best bits were without doubt the opening and the bit where he was on the little fella's shoulders.
Saw this yesterday, and I laughed. Great film. Who cares if it's the same as its prequels? They didn't have Danny DeVito with a Uzi, or Kevin Spacey being evil. Speaking of which, the opening sequence was the best bit in the film.
"So...Ms Normous..."
Chuckle. Obviously shallow, and same jokes as 1 and 2. I loved it.
"So...Ms Normous..."
Chuckle. Obviously shallow, and same jokes as 1 and 2. I loved it.
Snuggly, don't think I wasn't. It's just I could do WITHOUT the fart jokes ;-)
If you go to an Austin Powers movie expecting anything else but jokes about poo, weeing and sex, then you deserve to be disappointed.
Just got back from seeing this.
I enjoyed it.
Its a good film. Loads of funny moments and worth seeing but only if you don't read loads into it, just enjoy what is there. Better than the second one but not as good as the first but it would be hard to be better than the first as it was unique.
I enjoyed it.
Its a good film. Loads of funny moments and worth seeing but only if you don't read loads into it, just enjoy what is there. Better than the second one but not as good as the first but it would be hard to be better than the first as it was unique.
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