Matt Greene These movies aren't parodies. They're sporadically funny, obnoxiously disgusting and full of incessant references to modern (and now out of date) culture that really don't stand the test of time. Troyer is great, the giant flying genitals are inspired, and Dr. Evil is a national treasure.

Python Hyena Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999): Dir: Jay Roach / Cast: Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Verne Troyer, Rob Lowe, Seth Green: Sequel is more of the same yet with some added vulgar bits. Its slang title is based on the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and was controversial in some countries. It has a hilarious opening where Dr. Evil is a guest on The Jerry Springer Show. After an unsuccessful honeymoon Austin's mojo is stolen by Dr. Evil. With a suddenly available time machine Powers ventures back to 1969 to stop him. Director Jay Roach is skilled at comedy but the idea that Powers never needed his mojo makes the plot totally useless. Mike Myers effectively plays three roles. Asides from Powers and Dr. Evil he also plays evil agent Fat Bastard. Heather Graham plays Miss Shagwell whose name sums up her nature. She seems to have better chemistry with Myers than Elizabeth Hurley, whose role was too much of a romantic cliché. Rob Lowe is hilarious as agent #2 despite the fact that the role is somewhat reduced. Verne Troyer steals scenes as Mini-Mi who is a clone of Dr. Evil. He conducts whatever orders given until he is "flushed" into space. Seth Green also returns as Scott Evil whose status as Dr. Evil's son is pushed aside by Mini-Mi. Great colourful production and makeup effects highlight this sequel with a screenplay that was totally shagged. Score: 4 / 10

johnnyboyz Why might a spoof require a sequel? Spoofs are, by their very definition, subversive and deliberately comic in their attitudes towards popular generic convention. A characteristic of popular generic convention includes that of "the sequel"; that of "the franchise"; that of "the series" – when a spoof is produced, and it's as amusing as the first "Austin Powers" film was, it cannot be anything but both thoroughly shameful and wholly hypocritical to induce the continued adventures of its hero. Is it not wholly detrimental to the original notion and a complete anomaly? Was there a joke or a sight gag that was missed the first time round that the audience really ought to have seen? The answer is "No" - at least it is to the last of those three questions. For everything else, the response ought to come in the form of a mumbled agreement that Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is a bit of a waste of time and just not particularly funny.The 'spoof' in question in Austin Powers was that of the Bond franchise; something which was playfully mocked without ever really being thoroughly undermined anyway nastily. But hold on, for in spite of the evident references to Oddjob and the master villain stroking his white cat, what was it about the film that so evidently made it a Bond spoof? If it was at all, it was subtle; the references were dropped in around amusing scenes depicting Powers try to win at blackjack with a "5". The pastiche is here a hundred times more aggressive and, as a consequence, a hundred times less funny. True, one cannot help but chuckle at the opening ballad being belted out in the mould of a Shirley Bassey theme tune but a mere few of the references here go an awfully long way. You need not be anybody in particular to notice that "International Man of Mystery" was never intended to have a sequel. For our troubles of sitting through some of the less-bearable sequences in said 1997 feature, we get what is essentially a lazier; cruder and more infantile film than before which makes the golden error of thinking that because it's a comedy playing on something popular, and by definition things that are most popular in contemporary cinema are often crass and infantile, it thinks it has to provide us with a film that is as puerile and often as disgusting as The Spy Who Shagged Me is.Shamelessly defiling everything that made the first one the solid experience it was, we begin on the honeymoon of the titular Austin Powers (Myers) and his bride Vanessa Kensington and witness the film throw us a vicious curveball in revealing Hurley's character to have been a robotic imposter all along. I think we'd invested a certain amount of energy and time in these people, we witnessed them begin their relationship on contemptible grounds, as varied attitudes towards sex from different eras clashed, before seeing them come to quite like one another after a series of instances wherein Powers turns down the offer for sex from a drunk Kensington and they end up saving the world together.In spite of all that, how does Powers react to the revelation? Why, to celebrate. Myers' other creation, the hunched Dr. Evil whose appearance was always designed to call to mind the best of the Blofeld depictions in Donald Pleasance's is back. Where freezing oneself in time so as to be thawed in the future and wreak havoc in the era was the idea before, the notion of time travel is here ill-advisedly introduced into proceedings - one is reminded of that line from Michael Hanke's "Funny Games" when, upon observing a character in possession of a shotgun ideally used to quell the reign of terror being inflicted upon him, the primeval component of that film's antagonistic force merely grins and utters words along the lines of: "Oh, you've brought us a new toy..." What unfolds is essentially a reversing of the joke that was the whole point of "International Man of Mystery" in the first place; that is to say, removing people from the 1960's and placing them in the 90's for shock and amusement. The gag, of course, revolved around how sensible and chaste we all were in the modern world where, before, we couldn't keep out of one another's beds. The reality is actually the other way around, but the idea of this swinging 60's rouge from London being catapulted to modern Las Vegas worked to a basic degree. Here, Evil and Powers dart back to the 60's again; Evil to steal Powers' inherent sexual prowess while he's still frozen (prior to events from the first film) and Powers to ultimately stop him. Of course, the film realises how shallow all this is and by the end opts for a sub-narrative revolving around a giant laser Dr. Evil is to shoot from space to see it home.Where one was perhaps tempted to genuinely think Hurley's character might work for the government in the first film, and her resistance to Powers' initial advances saw her informed enough to batter each of them away, the female accomplice here is the opposite. Practically begging for sex from the off, Heather Graham's American agent Felicity Shagwell fulfils the role of what is essentially eye-candy to Hurley's (dare we say it?) actual characterisation. The dynamic of their relationship reads: where before, Kensington wouldn't take what Powers wanted to give he is now stuck not being able to receive what Shagwell is crying out to provide. For that to be your central joke, on top of everything else that's wrong with it, means that this is a messy entry indeed.

gwnightscream Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Rob Lowe, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling, Seth Green and Verne Troyer star in this 1999 comedy sequel. This installment begins with spy, Austin Powers (Myers) on his honeymoon with Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley) and it turns out that she's a robot assassin working for Dr. Evil (Myers). After she fails to extinguish him, he learns of Dr. Evil's volcano hideout by Basil (York). Dr. Evil decides to travel back in time to 1969 to steal Austin's mojo and plans on destroying Washington, D.C. Austin learns of Dr. Evil's plan and also travels to 1969 where he meets agent, Felicity Shagwell (Graham) who helps him and they begin falling for each other. Wagner is back as Number 2 with Lowe playing his younger self in 1969, Sterling returns as Frau, Green returns as Scott and Troyer plays Dr. Evil's pint size clone, Mini-Me. This is a good sequel and Myers is great as usual. I recommend this.