REVIEW DATE:6:25:9:9

What? Of course, I'm reviewing this movie. I just saw it's sequel today, I had to review this one. For backstory purposes if nothing else.

In less then a decade Mike Myers has gone from just another actor going down with the ship of Saturday Night Live to. . .well, this. Life's funny that way. Though this is the first time he has portrayed a character (to my knowledge, help me out if I'm wrong) not connected to SNL.

Does that help/hurt the character and the movie itself? I'm not sure. You could make the argument that having Austin Powers be a completely original creation would give the screenwriter more stuff to play around with, but then, Wayne's World was a pretty one-dimensional skit too and look at all the great stuff in those flicks!

The best way to describe Austin Powers would be, oh I don't know . . . James Bond on LSD. Yeah, that seams about right. Powers is the weird-ass mirror image of all those great superspy characters Sean Connery/Roger More used to play. Not just Bond, but The Saint too. The kind of characters that they used to make spy cases out off. With one exception: Austin (Mike Myers) is a swinger, baby, yeah!

Every good secret agent needs an evil villain. We all know this. Just what does that evil villain do, class?

"The same thing we do every night, Dr. Psy: TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Very good, someone's been paying attention. And here we have a villain whose name is. . .Dr. Evil! Let's see, how to describe Dr. Evil (also Mike Myers)'s character? Oh yes: think of every James Bond villain, put them in a blender, set the blender on "milk shake", and add some crystal meth. Now you have Dr. Evil.

Both of those strange analogies get us to the heart of Austin Powers. AP is one big spoof of every super spy movie you can think of. One of those genre-spoofing comedies in the spirit of Hot Shots and Loaded Weapon One.

To bad it doesn't rise it their levels.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is funny. Just not the kind of Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud funny. Why not? We'll talk about that after an important message. One I call "The Movie's Plot".

Austin Powers is an international super spy in 1967, much to the chagrin of Dr. Evil. Putting a master plan into motion Dr. Evil has himself and his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, cryogenically frozen and shot into space. Deciding it would be better for the world if he were still around, Powers has himself frozen as well.

We fast-forward to 1997. Dr. Evil is back and ready to do some evil stuff. Powers is also thawed and both are thrust into a world radically different from what they knew.

You would expect this to be a gold mine of comedy for the screenwriter (guess who? Yep, Mike Myers), and in a way it is. There is a great bit where Dr. Evil threatens the UN that he will destroy the world if he isn't paid . . . one million dollars! Needless to say, the world leaders laugh him off.

Other bits of stupid fun include several scenes where Austin (considered a "sexy bitch" in his own time) tries to persuade his 90's woman partner, Venessa (Elizabeth Hurley) to have sex with him. His somewhat pathetic come ons include "Do I make you horny?" Oh sure, that will get you chicks.

Actually, that might just work. Heck, I've tried practically everything else.

Huh? Oh, plot, right, sorry. The thing Dr. Evil was threatening the world with is a nuclear bomb, which he plans to drill into the earth's core, triggering volcanic eruptions all over the world. It's up to Austin and Venessa to stop him.

You would expect Myers to milk the "Jerk from the 60s wakes up in the 90s" angle for everything its worth, right? Well, to bad. While there is the occasional fun bit, most of the comedy is generated by . . ., well, bathroom jokes. Yeah from the scene of Dr. Evil's henchman, Number 2 (Robert Wagner) saying the line "That's my business," (don't worry, when you see the movie it'll be funny), to the obligatory urination scene. It seams that, ever since A League Of There Own (I think that's when it started) comedy movies consider a man pissing for more then a minuet the funniest thing in the world.

So do I. Sorta. I sure found it funny the first hundred times I saw it.

You'd expect Myers to milk the "Spoof the spy movies" angle for all it's worth, right? Well, to bad. Once again the occasional funny bit. Funniest of all would be when Dr. Evil tries to kill Austin by dunking him (very slowly) in a tub of man-eating sharks. Dr. Evils son, Scott (Seth Green) remarks "Hey, I got a gun in my room, I'll shoot him right now." So begins another in series of very funny scenes between the two. But, as I said, most of the comedy comes from bathroom jokes.

For example: Alotta Fagina. I'm not kidding, that's actually a character's name. You see what I mean?

And hey: there ain't nothing wrong with that. Nothing, not a single freekin' thing. Austin Powers is not a bad movie. It has great comedic acting by all those involved. Not a bad performance in the whole cast. Do you know how hard that is to pull off? I liked this movie, I really did. I just think that, in the hands of a more skilled writer at the helm it could have been so much more.

RATING (OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)

IT'S NO WAYNE'S WORLD, BUT WHAT IS?