Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Jay Roach

Starring: Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Rob Lowe, Verne Troyer

From: New Line Cinema

Or: When Jeff Bezos dictates my movie choices.

For those reading this long after the fact, yesterday the Amazon billionaire and a few others went into outer space for a few minutes. No matter if you think Bezos is a bozo (or worse), we can all laugh that the rocket which took them to space looked rather... well, phallic. Many made the natural comparison to a scene in this motion picture, where Dr. Evil takes off in a rocket that looks like male genitalia on purpose. While the real life vehicle might be best if it's in that particular shape, its appearance greatly entertained millions; in any case, revisiting this for the first time in ages was only the logical thing to do.

I'm sure that most realize the plot is that both Powers and Dr. Evil travel back to 1969, and while some of the jokes are retreads, others haven't aged too well, and there are anachronistic moments, overall I still laughed a decent amount. Welcome additions are Mini-Me (what a sad life Verne Troyer had), Fat Bastard and Heather Graham as Felicity Shagwell. The fact that this is more hit and miss than the first is mitigated by some high-quality gags/jokes (such as the two scenes of random people commenting on the penis rocket) and the continued taking the piss out of the Bond franchise.

Nostalgia may be talking here but it was a relief that in 2021 it was still rather entertaining. The fact that this is better than I recall Goodmember being also helps... I also recall that the number of cameos in that was even more excessive than the ones here; some of those I had no memory of. In any case, even though I am a Prime member that does not mean I'm a fan of Mr. Bezos and in fact wouldn't be crestfallen if he was either left in space or cryo-frozen for awhile.