Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Directed by Jay Roach

Film Review

The original series of James Bond films was winding down when Mike Myers leaped in and thrust into our unsuspecting laps the ultimate Bond spoof, not only writing the script (one of the daftest ever to go before a film camera) but also playing the two main characters: groovy super-spy Austin Powers ("Oh, be-have!") and his deadly adversary Dr Evil ("Why must I be surrounded by frickin' idiots?").  Myers knows his Bond inside-out and his screenplay is absolutely saturated with references to the early James Bond films, all with a suitably cruel comedic slant.  The film also draws on other 1960s thriller influences, including the popular television shows Adam Adamant Lives!, Department S and The Avengers and contemporary films such as The Ipcress File.  Powers is most recognisably a send-up of Sean Connery's hairy-chested, über-cool Bond, but there is also more than a touch of Michael Caine's Harry Palmer and Peter Wyngarde's Jason King in this chauvinistic 1960s avatar.  Whilst the bulk of the film is set in the 1990s, it has a deliciously camp sixties feel to it and watching it is like taking a wild joy ride in the age of the swingers.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is not only a spirited parody it is also an inspired piece of film comedy in its own right.  Whilst the film has great fun mocking the sexual mores and attitudes of the 1960s, it does so in an affectionate rather than vicious vein, and Powers is a far more sympathetic character than you might first think, not too far removed from Jean Dujardin's agent OSS 117 in Michel Hazanavicius's French film equivalent: OSS 117: Le Caire nid d'espions (2006).  If the film has a subtext at all, it is that we should never judge past eras by the standards of our own time.

Myers turns in not one but two tour de force performances.  Indeed, so well does he delineate his two characters - Powers and Dr Evil - that it is hard to believe they are played by the same actor.  Dr Evil is the funnier of the two characters, a happy synthesis of every Bond villain, surrounded by henchmen and henchwomen who are scarily like their Bond counterparts (the best being Random Task, a near-relation of Oddjob, whose one talent is decapitating statues by throwing a shoe).  Whilst Powers is struggling to adjust himself to the sexual inhibitions of the 1990s, Dr Evil has an even bigger challenge - to try and bond with the stroppy teenage son he never knew he had, even resorting to a group therapy session (the film's funniest sequence).  

Elizabeth Hurley shows a totally unexpected penchant for knockabout comedy as Powers' leggy sidekick and Michael York provides some superb comedy backup as Basil Exposition, the M to Powers' Bond.   The star-studded supporting cast includes such unlikely contributors as Robert Wagner and Carrie Fisher, although all are entirely eclipsed by the omnipresent Myers, who is at his most outrageously entertaining.  The film's success resulted in two sequels (The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember), but neither was as fresh and inspired as this first Austin Powers outing, one of the most hilarious comedies of the 1990s.  A fourth film is mooted to be in the offing, but only time will tell if and when Britain's coolest secret agent will return to utter those immortal words "Yeah, baby, yeah".

Film Synopsis

In 1967, Britain's top secret agent and number one hipster, Austin Powers, is on the trail of his deadly archenemy Dr Evil, the world's greatest criminal mastermind.  Aware that he is walking into a trap. Powers confronts Dr Evil in his London nightclub, but his nemesis escapes in a space rocket cunningly disguised as a Bob's Big Boy statue.  Realising that Dr Evil has cryogenically frozen himself, Powers subjects himself to the same treatment.  Thirty years later, Dr Evil is back on Earth and plans to steal a nuclear missile so that he can hold the world to ransom.  During his absence, his criminal empire has grown to become one of the world's leading international conglomerates, run with ruthless efficiency by his Number Two.  Dr Evil is less happy to hear that his vile henchwoman Frau Farbissina has given him a son, Scott Evil, from a frozen sample of his sperm.  Realising that Austin Powers is the only man capable of thwarting Dr Evil, British Intelligence revives the 1960s spy, who is all too pleased to be partnered with Vanessa Kensington, the daughter of his former colleague.  Vanessa is at first disgusted by Powers' out-dated chauvinistic attitude towards women and his obsessive interest in sex, but she too ultimately succumbs to his irresistible charms (after he has taken on board her advice about dental hygiene).  Vanessa's resourcefulness and Powers' deadly sex appeal make a powerful combination, but will this be enough to defeat Dr Evil?