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Edinburgh University
Film Society 44 Years of Cinema 1963-2007 Student Film Society of the Year 2005 |
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Jay Roach, USA 1997, 96 mins
Austin Powers is the latest cinematic outing of Mike Myers (he of Wayne's World and Saturday Night Live fame). It is an amalgam of all those 60s spy films from James Bond and The Avengers to The Saint - where the spy is known as a celebrity in himself and this is shown in the title sequence (which is superb) with Powers mobbed by Beatles-style adoring fans, and on the front cover of Time magazine.
The joke of the story is transposing this spying casanova from the free loving 1960s to the politically correct 1990s - when Powers is "thawed" from cryogenic freezing to deal with his old arch rival - Dr. ("I didn't spend 5 years at evil medical school to be called Mr") Evil (also played by Myers) who has also been revived from cryogenic freezing.
Powers heads off to America with Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), who is the daughter of his 60s heartthrob Mrs. Kensington (a Pussy Galore style vamp) and this provides comical opportunities for Powers to discover feminism and re-examine his own sexual attitudes.
The film like so many Myers movies (such as So I Married an Axe Murderer) eventually gets bogged down under it's own weight with some lamer scenes for example, Dr Evil taking his new found son off to a parent child counselling session, American style - however it does provide lots of fun along the way.
It has its staple of Myers' catch phrases - "Crazy Baby" which though not quite as addictive as Axe Murderers' "Hello" or Wayne's "Not" will still have you driving your mates up the walls for the next 3 weeks.
The film although not up to the heady Wayne's World standards, has some beautiful scenes - the title dance scenes are fantastic, Dr Evil's insistence on having Powers left in an escapable situation, the constant references to British dental hygiene and (how could one forget) the ever highbrow Ms. Fagina scenes...
A visual treat and opportunity to see swinging 60s London at its most kitsch.
Stephen J. Brennan
EUFS Programme 1998-99