I must admit, I loved the last James Bond movie. Since I saw it in theaters, I’ve seen it multiple times on cable, but every time I watch it, I have to ask, can they possibly be serious?
Does Pierce Brosnan really have the talent to jump off a cliff, land on the wing of a plane, climb in, and save the craft from a nose-dive, all while avoiding machine gun fire? Like I said before, can they possibly be serious?
Fortunately for all of us, Mike Myers asked himself the same question. If his new movie “Austin Powers” is any indication, he decided they must be serious, but they certainly have no reason to be.
Mike Myers is just great in this movie. Martin Short is the only actor in Hollywood who is less like Pierce Brosnan (or former Bond Sean Connery, for that matter) that Myers, but that makes the parody even better. One of the best gags in the movie is Myers smile, which says “please help me, I need an orthodontist” as a response to Pierce Brosnan’s “I’m so attractive I know I can have any woman I want” smile.
The film starts in the 60s, when Austin has a showdown with his nemesis, Dr. Evil (also played by Myers). However, Dr. Evil gets away by cryogenically freezing himself in a spacecraft shaped like a restaurant logo, to come back when, as he says, “greed rules again.”
In a move of unrivaled bravery, Austin volunteers to have himself frozen, as well, to come back when Dr. Evil does. I don’t want to give the movie too much credit as a artistic masterpiece, but the culture shock experienced by Powers is one of the funniest, and perhaps most poignant movie moments ever captured on film.
Even better, it’s something that James Bond never bothered to deal with. In “Goldeneye,” Bond suddenly appeared in the 90s, surrounded by 90s characters in the midst of a 90s plot, but he still acted the same way he did in the 60s, and never had a problem with it.
Powers, on the other hand, had no such luck. His attempts to pick up British agent Vanessa Kensington (supermodel Elizabeth Hurley) were greeted coldly, if at all, and even worse, compact discs wouldn’t play on his turntable.
Austin, however, wasn’t the only one experiencing a little bit of culture shock. Dr. Evil, in developing a plan for global blackmail, wants to use a laser beam to put a hole in the ozone layer unless the United Nations pay him one million dollars. That is, until his assistant, Number Two (Bond mockery and easy bathroom humor all in one name) reminds him that the ozone hole is already there, and one million dollars is chump change in today’s world.
The best running gag in the movie, though, is the extensive and well-planned lack of nudity. Anyone who has seen very many 60s spy movies can attest to the often naked characters, but the absence of actual exposure. For unbelievable amounts of time, Hurley and Myers, through extremely careful planning, avoid showing us anything by a hair.
Another joke that deserves note is that of British agent Basil Exposition (played by Michael York). He doesn’t self-destruct, but he is Powers’s electronic, absent-minded way of learning his assignment, all without suffering through the cinema of the Bahamas.
Whether you love or hate James Bond, you’ll love “Austin Powers.” The humor is constant and, exploring a new vein for Mike Myers, somewhat sophisticated. And you won’t wonder for a second whether they’re serious or not.
Grade: A