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i've been meaning to watch this for a while now, but to be truthful, the thing that really made me want to watch it was the epic rap battle video between austin and james bond.... yeah.... the idea of a promiscuous and silly secret spy was alluring to me, i felt the affects of austin powers's charm before i even watched the movie. so yeah, here's a quick review on it. while it's definitely not a cinematic masterpiece, it is a lot of fun!
shagadelic summary, baby!
austin powers: international man of mystery, directed by jay roach, is the the first installment in a comedy/spy trilogy starring mike myers as austin powers. a secret agent with an affinity for the 60s and women, austin powers is forced to face his arch nemesis dr. evil (also mike myers) after 30 years of being cryogenically frozen. he teams up with another agent named vanessa kensington to stop his enemy from taking over the world.
the icky stuff (cause we save the goodies for last)
i don't have many complaints about this movie! most of the jokes were funny, and the movie itself was really above decent. but here's some nitpick-y stuff anyway.
let's just say this movie didn't pass the bechdel test... okay, but in all seriousness, i wish vanessa was a better written character. she's fine, and i understand that it was still the 90s. it wasn't that she was horrible and was definitely written by a misogynist, she just was kind of bland. she had potential to be more! but she's just the typical cool girl annoyed by the main character who falls in love with the main character by the end of the movie.
(this entire section is a spoiler so highlight if you wanna read, skip if you don't want to) [i wish dr. evil and his son had a better arc?? the movie just kind of ends without really completing their little side plot, and i was kind of confused whether dr. evil hated or loved his son. because on one hand he cared about him because he technically created him, but he also despised him and i can't really figure out why he hated him so bad. i probably just missed something because i was kinda multitasking, but still... i wish they had some sort of closure.]
stuff i liked
first of all, can we give a round of applause to deena appel for her amazing costume design!??! what can i say. i'm a sucker for good movie fashion, and my favorite part of the movie was definitely the outfits. you could tell exactly what kind of person each character was just by looking at the clothes they wore. also, austin powers's blue suit is iconic and very memorable. no one was boring to look at, and the 60s fashion was just perfect! scott evil's outfits were also pretty good, i'd even wear some of them. they really encapsulate the 90s teenage dirtbag look. the colors of the outfits were interesting, the silhouettes were fun, i just love the costume designs.
i laughed at a lot of this movie. there weren't a lot of jokes and bits that i cringed at. well, maybe except for the toilet scene, but it just wasn't my humor. even then i still laughed at the cowboy's reactions. something else that's kind of related to the humor is that there were an insane amount of quotable lines. the entire scene where dr. evil just goes on and on in the daddy issues group was just hilarious. i'd say a good 60% or even 70% of the movie is quotable, and "shagadelic" is definitely going to become a part of my day-to-day vocabulary.
i'm dedicating an entire section to the fembots scene, because i can. it was probably my favorite scene, how can it not be? (slight spoilers) [basically, austin has to face a group of sexy robots who are irresistible to men, but the thing is, he's irresistible to women. he uses this to his advantage and defeats the fembots by getting all sexual and making their heads literally spin and break. he has english flag briefs on. and it's fucking hilarious.]
i almost forgot to mention... one last thing: the colors? impeccable, outstanding, etc etc. austin brings life and color everywhere he goes, and dr. evil's palette is monochrome black-and-white. this movie made great use of color theory! it was all very visually appealing.
the final verdict?!
i know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but this movie is a 4.5 stars out of 5 in my heart. the plot is fairly simple but what makes the movie shine is its playful humor and campy style. yes it kind of sucks, yes austin is sometimes obnoxious, and yes there's a sex joke in every other scene, but that's a part of the charm, baby! i really liked watching it and i'm probably gonna get a dvd of it at some point. i'm keeping the 0.5 star because while i love it, it's also objectively above decent. it wasn't bad enough to put me to sleep, but it also wasn't outstanding. at the end of the day, it's just a lighthearted comedy about a goofy 60s spy, and it doesn't have to be more than that!
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