Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (USA, 1997)
Directed by Jay Roach
Starring Mike Myers, Liz Hurley, Michael York, Mindy Sterling
Much like the Bond series which it parodies, the Austin Powers series
has become an indelible part of popular culture. There's barely anyone
who grew up in the 1990s who can't quote from it, and even people who've
never seen the film smile knowingly at the mention of "Yeah, baby!" or
"Oh, behave!". And while Bond has proved many times that influence and
longevity are not guarantees of quality, International Man of Mystery
has aged surprisingly well compared to other spy parodies in the same
vein.
Austin Powers is a meeting point between British and North American
humour, reflected in Mike Myers' dual British-Canadian citizenship.
Having grown up with Monty Python and the
Carry On series, Myers was
better placed than most American comedians to create a spoof of Bond, or
indeed the many other 1960s spy films and TV series like
The Avengers
and
Secret Agent, a.k.a.
Danger Man. There was also renewed public
interest in the Bond series following its successful re-launch with
Goldeneye. Pierce Brosnan's neo-classical Bond, which mixed 1960s puns
with 1990s product placement, set things up nicely for Myers to come in
and poke fun at aspects that fans young and old would know only too
well.
Considering that Myers cut his teeth on
Saturday Night Live, you
could be forgiven for expecting a film that is little more than a series
of sketches. But just as
Wayne's World still ranks as one of the best
films to come from
SNL, so Myers and director Jay Roach deserve credit
for giving us a half-decent narrative. The film is never consistently
funny, with peaks and troughs throughout its 90-minute running time, but
for the most part it feels like it is moving towards something rather
than just waiting for a laugh.
For fans of the Bond series, whether genuinely or ironically,
International Man of Mystery is chock full of references to the films,
and lovingly parodies many aspects which have come to define the
character. The most obvious is the sexually suggestive names, with the
character Alotta Fagina nodding both to Famke Janssen's character in
Goldeneye and the likes of Pussy Galore and Plenty O'Toole. Having a
character so blatantly named raises a laugh, but also a feeling of
embarrassment - a feeling of: "How did we let them get away with that?"
While the Roger Moore era is in the firing line in terms of sexual
overtones, the main target of
Austin Powers is the Connery era. The sets
borrow heavily from the early days of the series, with the penthouse
nodding to
You Only Live Twice and the nuclear-related climax being
lifted from
Dr. No. The latter is also a possible reference to
Daleks:
Invasion Earth AD 2150, in which the Daleks attempt to drill out the
Earth's core to turn the planet into a spaceship (just don't call it a
Death Star).
There are also more general Bond parodies which strike a chord.
Michael York does a brilliant job as Basil Exposition, parodying M's
only real role in the series beyond being annoyed at Bond. Much is made
of Austin's appearance, with his oversized teeth and seeming manhood
problems sending up Connery's immeasurable sex appeal (even though
Austin is equally irresistible). And while there's no Q figure in
Austin's universe, the conversation about a certain Swedish object more
than makes up for it. Besides, the film is already silly enough without
throwing joke gadgets into the mix.
The big challenge for Austin Powers, or indeed for any spoof, is
that the film needs to work as a believable and compelling story in
itself. It's not enough for us to get the jokes in whatever order we see
them: there has to be a logic from which they emanate which we can
follow and bond with, even if that logic is rooted is something utterly
stupid or absurd. As with
The Princess Bride, the film is never entirely
sure how far it wants to depart from convention, or whether its humour
comes mainly from celebrating the ludicrous nature of Bond or looking
down on it. This indecision, whether by Roach or Myers, makes the film
far more uneven than it needs to be.
The film is at its funniest when it has the confidence to
deconstruct the clichés of Bond. There are pockets of great surreal
comedy throughout the film, most of them involving Dr. Evil going
unknowingly over-the-top. The dreadful puns, laughing evilly for no
reason, the overly elaborate and utterly inept means of imprisoning
characters - all are handled with affectionate aplomb. Funniest of all
is the group therapy scene, in which Dr. Evil recounts the most absurdly
hilarious backstory to a therapist played by Carrie Fisher (oh, the
irony).
Austin Powers is also strong when it approaches the world of spying
from a smaller, more tangential angle. There are two instances in the
film where a minor character, a henchman of some kind, is introduced and
then bumped off - nothing unusual there. But the film then cuts to the
family or friends of said henchman as they are informed of his death,
with one being his wife and stepson, and the other his best friends
waiting for him to show up for his stag night. These jokes are
well-paced and witty, as well as doing much to convince us that we what
we are seeing stretches beyond the four corners of the screen.
Unfortunately, these kinds of smart, insightful gags are sandwiched
between swathes of dated gross-out jokes which go on far too long. The
"Number 2" sequence, featuring Austin on the toilet, is funny in a
fleeting, sub-American Pie way, as are the sight gags involving objects
covering people's private parts. But while it's all fine and good on its
own, this kind of humour becomes embarrassing when it's in the context
of the other, smarter stuff. It's like a refined university student
having to hang out with his teenage brother, who insists on making fart
noises and shouting "boobs!" in the middle of seminars.
The plot of Austin Powers is also a little suspect. Having set up
that Vanessa isn't the least bit charmed by Austin, they seem to hit it
off pretty quickly. If this was intended as a send-up of Bond's romantic
relationships, the film doesn't put enough effort into make this
transition seem either credible or so incredible that it's funny.
There's also surprisingly little attempt to use Austin's
fish-out-of-water predicament to greater effect: there's a few jokes
about him being out-of-date in the 1990s, but once he's become his old
self the film carries on as if those scenes weren't all that important.
Ultimately the film rises and falls on the strengths of its jokes
and the performers who deliver them. On the good side, Seth Green is
funny as Dr. Evil's snarky son Scott, and Robert Wagner wrings
everything he can out of his role as Number 2. On the bad side, Will
Ferrell as usual isn't funny, with his passingly amusing joke about a
badly burned minion being dragged out far too long. Liz Hurley acquits
herself just about okay, though a lot of the time it seems like her
audio has been dubbed - and not particularly well-dubbed at that.
Fortunately both of these niggles are redeemed by Myers, who handles
his two roles with good timing and much charisma. His Dr. Evil is by
far the more enjoyable performance, with more of the jokes hitting the
mark and the costume tapping into everything that made Blofeld
simultaneously sinister and ridiculous. Whatever questionable choices he
made with later characters (like Fat Bastard and Goldmember), here he
is immensely watchable.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is a pretty good first
instalment of what would become a trilogy. It's nothing like as
consistent as it needs to be, with the film settling for broader, more
scatological humour when its smarter stuff is far more funny and
interesting. But Myers manages to keep the laughs coming over the 90
minutes, and Roach is on hand to keep it all looking and feeling like a
film rather than a sketch show. It's not perfect, but as
Get Smart and
others have shown, it could have been a whole lot worse.
Rating: 3.5/5
Verdict: Still pretty groovy
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