Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) continues the first film and pushes the spy parody further. Dr. Evil builds a time machine, goes back to 1969 and steals Austin's mojo. Austin follows. The film moves between the sixties and the nineties, mocking both. What the series is best at is manufacturing characters. This one produces Mini-Me, a one eighth scale clone of Dr. Evil, and Fat Bastard, a Scottish guard; both were discussed more than the film. Mike Myers plays three parts. The best sections are the therapy scenes between Dr. Evil and his son Scott, and a song performed in space. The title caused trouble in America. Some television channels and newspapers refused to use it as written and shortened it in advertising; the argument served as free publicity. The box office story is interesting: this film took more in its opening weekend than the first took in its entire run. The first had done moderately in cinemas and found its real audience on video and television. Heather Graham and Rob Lowe are in the cast. The humour runs on repetition; the same joke is deliberately made over and over. It runs 95 minutes. Good for: parody, nineties comedy, and anyone who liked the first. Less good for: the humour is crude and the bodily jokes are relentless.