:: Captain's Personal Blog ::

Stardate: Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Disappointment....Even WITH low expectations

Last night my father and I watched AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER on DVD. I found it tremendously hilarious. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a comedy in a long time. For the first 3 and a half minutes. After that, I spent the rest of the film in abject disappointment.

Getting over the final tally of two musical numbers, two in-film flashbacks, two "new" flashbacks and a bunch of recycled jokes, there was very little original content in the film that lent itself to the movie.

To better illustrate this point, let's go back to the success of the original film. AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY worked because it was a spoof of the spy genre, especially the JAMES BOND films. Austin was an amalgam of all of the original actors to play Bond with a few others thrown in for good measure. Dr. Evil was an amalgam of all the actors to portray the character of Blofeld in the Bond films, with a few others thrown in. From there, the satire stemmed from the fishes out of water story and their strict adherence to genre film guidelines.

AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME, fell short of the original mark because it strayed from that formula. Look at all film series of that nature. SCARY MOVIE for example. The first one, while not comedic genius, was funny because it spoofed the whole teen horror genre. SCARY MOVIE 2, was filled with inconsistencies and became more of a pop culture spoof than anything else. It was not as funny as the first by a long shot.

In TSWGM, Austin's Mojo was removed (a defining characteristic if ever I heard one), Dr Evil became too hip (rapping -- a new concept -- with Mini Me, showing up on the Jerry Springer Show, etc.), Scott lost some of his edge, everything just started to feel old.

In GOLDMEMBER, the lines between Austin's character and Dr. Evil are almost erased, as evidenced by their very similar reaction to THE MOLE. Dr. Evil started to become Canadian (if he said "ey" one more time I would have expected to see him wearing the Canadian flag), Scott lost the rest of his edge, Dr. Evil became even MORE hip, and that's just the recurring stuff. Add to that the fact that WARNING!!! THERE BE SPOILERS HERE!!!! Dr. Evil and Austin wind up being brothers, so Dr. Evil becomes good?! Scott takes over the family business solo?! Mini-Me defects?! Fat Bastard turns over a new leaf?! And what about the '70's? Foxxy Cleopatra was a good start, but they should have spent more time there. It would have been funnier. And what was the deal with Goldmember. His character was just uncomfortable. He was not funny and he was not menacing. He just made me uncomfortable. And what about Michael Caine? His character's potential was just terribly unrealized. Yes he had a good moment or two, but past that he just seemed like really expensive window dressing. Nice, but totally kept in the background.

After all of that, the recycled and rehashed jokes just made this feel totally old. I think that this film should be the last of the series. Let it respectfully die while there's some dignity left in it.
:: J 10:24 AM [+] ::
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