Sitting in the darkened theater as the second half of
Austin Powers: Goldmember began to unfurl before me I wiped away the tears of laughter from a bit about a very angry fat man in a diaper and realized something about Mike Meyers, and I’m sure I’m not the first. I realized that if his performances throughout his entire career are any indication then he is having more fun with his chosen profession that anyone should legally be allowed to have. Even in this the third, and somewhat less than perfect, installment of the Austin Powers Trilogy it is blatantly obvious that the man loves what he does and works very hard at doing it. In my opinion that kind of spirit can, and in this case does at times, carry a somewhat lacking film.
Austin Powers: Goldmember is not perfect by any means, but it is funny, an enjoyable way to spend two hours, and well worth the price of admission.
If you've seen parts one and two of this series you already know the setup going in. If not, let me break it down for you so you'll be prepared. In the first film,
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery we were introduced to the titular character Austin Powers, a British super spy from the 60s who was cryogenically frozen and then thawed out in the 90s to face his nemesis, Dr. Evil. Hilarity ensued. Then came the second installment,
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. This time Austin, now living permanently in the 90s was tasked with time traveling back to the 60s to stop Dr. Evil from blowing things up with his moon mounted laser. Oh, and Dr. Evil got a midget clone of himself. Part two had better characters and not quite as good a plot, but still hilarity ensued. In
Goldmember a new evil is a foot and Austin must once again time travel to save the day and rescue his super spy father. It's a decent story line for a second sequel, if not a bit contrived and rushed at times. The question is will hilarity once again ensue? Read on, and lets find out.
One of the strongest aspects of the Austin Powers series thus far has been the amazing cast of characters that Meyers surrounds himself with. This trend continues with
Goldmember. Back for another turn are Scott Evil (Seth Green), Mini Me (Verne Troyer), Number 2 (Robert Wagner), and a host of others. What keeps each movie fresh though are the always interesting new characters Meyers throws into the mix. Goldmember is no exception. Foxy Cleopatra (Beyonc Knowles) is Austin's foxy female sidekick for this adventure. Nigel Powers (Michael Caine) is the kidnapped super spy father of Austin Powers. All of these pale in comparison to the characters Meyers himself plays. In
Goldmember he tackles the Herculean task of playing four quite large roles for the entire length of the film and is hilarious in every frame. Also, keep an eye out for quite a few very funny cameos. I don't want to spoil them here though so you'll just have to watch and wonder.
Jay Roach (
Meet the Parents) does another fairly admirable job of bringing Meyer's vision to the screen. Although the story is sometimes a bit uneven he seems to be very much in tune with what they want to accomplish and very comfortable with this kind of tongue in cheek comedy. He has edited and layered the film just as he did with the first two and I think has accomplished what very few directors of sequels can, he has made a fairly entertaining and well put together film. I really am looking forward to his follow-up to
Meet the Parents,
Meet the Fokkers which is currently in pre-production and slated for a 2003 release.
Overall the answer to the question is posed earlier is that yes hilarity does ensue in
Austin Powers: Goldmember. Just not quite as much. And not quite in the same fresh way it has in the past two films. The trick to watching this film is not to go in expecting something totally new.
Goldmember is in fact the same joke as the previous films only taken a few glorious steps further. If you enjoyed parts one and two then expect to enjoy part three. If you didn't enjoy past experiences with Austin Powers, then I would spend my money on something else if I were you.
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