The One-Line Summary: International man of mystery Austin Powers (Mike Myers) is back in action when his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) and Mini Me (Verne Troyer) stage an elaborate breakout from prison and join forces with creepy disco-loving Goldmember (Mike Myers), a Dutch super-villain who lost his genitals in a gold smelting accident, to conquer the world by using a laser to guide a gold asteroid into the polar ice cap and cause a massive flood.
The Two-Line Blurb: In the third installment of the popular Austin Powers films, everything is bigger but the jokes are (mostly) the same, which is not an issue as Myers is able to keep that mojo alive, making both Powers and Dr. Evil two of the funniest and most beloved in comedy cinema, poking fun at the spy genre movies of the past while lovingly paying respects. A cavalcade of stars show up throughout the film, from Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg to Beyoncé and Michael Caine the list goes on and on giving the already self-referential story a true meta feel and a lot of high quality laughs, though it’s Myers who delivers the goods playing three characters and committing himself entirely to the premise.
The Three-Line Set-up: This moment is about the best recurring theme in the movie, the relationship between Austin and his famous spy father, Nigel Powers (Caine) who never seem to see eye-to-eye, even though Austin desperately wants to have a better bond (James?) with him. Austin feels his father is constantly disappointed with him, which culminates in his absence at Austin’s Knighting ceremony. But it turns out Nigel has been kidnapped and so Austin takes on the case, with the only clue being the gold-painted genitals each of Nigel’s yachting crew are left with after the assault.
The Four-Line Moment: Austin learns from Dr. Evil that it’s the notorious Goldmember who is behind the kidnapping and so Austin travels back to 1975 where his father is being held. He finds him in a room with four of Goldmember’s gold-clothed hench-women not hardly in trouble but using his charms to seduce the lovely ladies. Father and son sit on the bed together with the women behind them and begin a conversation that Austin thinks isn’t quite appropriate for the young American girls and instructs his dad that if he’s going to talk about naughty things, he should speak English English, meaning a mix of real cockney rhyming slang and bits of other British colloquialisms that is really just gibberish but with the help of some on-screen subtitles still makes no sense. It’s a funny but very effective gag that highlights the quick wit and superb writing that the series became so well known.
The Five-Word Review: This series never gets old.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIaiW1XrzxA?list=PL33535897451B5838&controls=0&showinfo=0&w=620&h=315]
Clip courtesy Movieclips
