Laughter Never Dies. Review on Austin Powers in Goldmember Movie

I for once have always been appreciative of sequels to movies that follow in the footsteps of their original counterparts mainly because the film makers make heightened efforts to top their success. It was this very streak that lead me to go watch the third installment in the Austin Powers franchise ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember’. And boy did I receive the entertainment that my money was worth.

Mike Myers returns again as the yellow toothed, psychedelic, bee-bopping, chick magnet secret agent Austin Powers. He is pitted yet again with his archenemy Dr.Evil (also played by Mike) who miraculously returns from his sojourn in outer space with Mini-Me,( Verne Troyer) his twinkie clone. Austin manages to arrest them this time right at the start only to uncover a diabolical scheme masterminded by Dr.Evil in collaboration with a certain Dutch nutcase aptly named ‘Goldmember’ (potrayed by Myers again) to drown the world under the sea. So now Austin has to once again put on his Time Traveling garb and head out to 1975 to save his father Nigel Powers (played by a suave Michael Caine) and foil the ‘evil’-doers plans. Following in the tradition of sexy female agents in the past like Vanessa Kensington (Liz Hurley) and Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) is Foxxy Cleopatra (played by a now-so-much-in-the news Beyonce Knowles from ‘Destiny’s Child’) who teams up with Austin to save the day. The rest as they say is history, but in Austin’s parallel universe it’s more like an extended limerick in the making. Quite frankly the movie has to be seen rather than discussed about.

There are enough elements in this slapstick creation to make up for the predictability of the events. Though there are more than a few surprises in the outcome of the story that lead to an unexpected climax, like its slick short take spoofs on the spy-films genre and brief interludes into the past of both Austin and Dr.Evil. Jay Roach, the director has assembled a good cast in the multi-talented Myers who plays 4 characters including the oversized, Irish gross bucket ‘Fat Bastard’. The rest of the cast does a decent job of playing to the mood of the comedy and enhance what could’ve been a usual case of toilet humor that is crass but funny.

The main attraction is definitely Mike Myers’ versatile talent at role-playing. Myers has been one of the few alumni from the famous Saturday Night Live band of comedians to actually make it big in mainstream cinema after the success of his metal loving Wayne Campbell from 1991’s ‘Wayne’s World’. The other thing that makes it worth the watching is its hilarious cameos by names as big as Tom Cruise, Kevin Spacey, Gwenyth Paltrow, Danny DeVito, Spielberg, Quincy Jones, John Travolta and a rib tickling take on the teen bubblegum queen Britney-Oops-Spears (not to be missed).

On the whole for those of you who like their bit of slapstick humor of a matured

kind (this is not for kids below 13) and need a dose of laughter that is definite to keep you rolling in your seats take a chance on ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember’.