AUSTIN POWERS: SPY WHO SHAGGED ME

SYNOPSIS:
It’s 1999 and Austin Powers (Mike Myers) is relaxing on the Riviera, when he learns that his arch enemy, Dr Evil (Mike Myers) has re-emerged and from his penthouse headquarters at the Seattle Space Needle is time travelling to 1969 to steal Austin’s mojo, his life force, really, so he (Dr Evil) can carry on destroying the world without interruptions from Austin. The loss of his mojo deprives Austin of his shagging ability, spurring him on to devise his own time travel gizmo to follow Dr Evil back to the 60s. He teams up with the leggy Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) from the CIA to pursue Dr Evil and his band of baddies and save the world – as well as get his mojo back.

"They say that many brilliant people love vulgar comedy, and while I can’t give you a list of these people, ‘they’ are probably right, because, for instance, the celebrated British actress, Dame Judi Dench once told me during an interview that she shared Billy Connolly’s very blue sense of humour. Well, come on down, Judi, this one’s for you. Benny Hill would have been proud to have created the Austin Powers franchise, and Mike Myers openly admits to being a Benny Hill fan way from back when. The vulgar jokes and dirty old man surrounded by semi naked beauties worked for Benny – and millions of fans – because it let everybody in on the coarsest jokes this side of pornorgraphy. Earthy and basic. The Spy Who Shagged Me takes the first Austin Powers film and simply regurgitates the structure (which is in any case an old formula for classic hero-saves-world-after entering-belly-of-beast spy movies, originating in classic literature – in case this is of interest to you) while upping the joke count and expanding on some of the funnier running gags. These stretch from the squirm-enducing jargon (the ‘Behave!’ And ‘Do I make you horny, baby?’ kind) to the double entendres, both verbal and visual. Watch for the tent scene, in which Felicity extracts items from a hidden trunk but from outside it looks as though she’s removing umbrellas and other items from Austin’s backside. The film achieves exactly what the filmmakers set out to, and will entertain its target market. Groovy, baby."
Andrew L. Urban