Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Directed by Jay Roach
Written by Mike Myers & Michael McCullers
Starring Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Rob Lowe, Mindy Sterling, Verne Troyer

My Advice: Don't Miss It.

Picking up where the first film left off, we join a jubilant Austin Powers (Myers) and his new bride, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley), who are on their honeymoon.  Unfortunately, Dr. Evil (Myers) returns to wreak havoc, with new allies Fat Bastard (Myers) and Mini-Me (Troyer).  Evil has a plan to go back in time and steal Austin's mojo, and Austin has to stop him lest his shagging days come to an end.

Heather Graham is a worthy (and slinky) successor to Hurley, playing the new love interest with every wile she can muster.  Rob Lowe, as the Young Number Two, channels Robert Wagner in a performance that eeriely reflects Ewan McGregor's dead-on Alec Guiness voice in that other summer movie.  Verne Troyer's Mini-Me is sadistic and all over the place, and if you can stand to conjure up pictures of the 1996 atrocity, The Island of Dr. Moreau, seeing him sitting next to Evil is priceless.

But let's not kid ourselves here, eh?  You have seen a lot of this film before--namely, in the first Austin Powers flick.  However, that's not necessarily a bad thing.  It bloody well works, if you can but dig it.  Myers and Roach have managed to take everything that worked from the first film, amplify it, build on it, throw it back at the audience and have it be funny all over again.  The schticks that are holdovers from the original are welcome, all except the "Shh" business, which I think they overdid just a tad.  But that's a nit.  Furthering the gut laughs is the fact that all of this is relentlessly hurled with rapidfire precision at the audience, so you'll find you need to see it twice just to catch some of the lines.  It's a summer flick that more than delivers on its promise, and becomes a better chapter than its predecessor.  Can't wait for the third time around, Mike.

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