Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Contrary to some reviews, this is funnier than the first, some jokes where typical of the first but worked better in this sequel. The addition of Minnie-me was so creative as was the performance of Seth Green as Scott, as a silly comedy, it is what it is silly and entertaining, it just does not get old.

---is Heather Graham.Although the edition of Mini Me comes a pretty close second. Seriously though this is pure camp and was just as good as the first one. I loved the misplaced references to pop culture including the Alan Parsons Project and Moon Units Alpha and Zappa. Some of the one liners from the movie have become ingrained in pop culture even today: "Magma", "Mini Me", "One trillion dollars" (with the hooked thumb). It is a fun movie but they could have done without recycling some of the older jokes and inserted some new stuff.

It's surprising to think that the first Austin Powers movie underwhelmed at the box office back in 1997, only picking up a cult following after its VHS release, and soon enough you couldn't escape the sound of someone yelling "yeah, baby!" every 5 minutes. By the time it's sequel hit the cinema screens, the character, along with the super-spy's arch-nemesis Dr. Evil, had garnered a huge mainstream following, and the movie was a big hit. Yet the film, subtitled The Spy Who Shagged Me, suffers from the same problems as most comedy sequels, which is basically to re-tread the same successful jokes from the first movie, and forgetting what made the original so fresh and charming.Powers (Mike Myers) is a randy, free-love type-of-guy from the 60's. When he was re-awoken from his cryogenic state in the 90's, his out- of-date attitudes put him at odds with a society that had grown more stiff-upper-lipped. Crowds of screaming girls would no longer chase him down the street a la A Hard Day's Night (1964) and sexy girls wouldn't be willing to bed him at the drop of a hat. When Dr. Evil (also Myers) arrives back to Earth with a plan to steal Powers' mojo, the characters find themselves time-travelling again back to the 60's, where gorgeous super-agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) is ready and willing, but Powers lack the mojo to do anything about it. Most of what made the first movie so successful was that Powers was a man out of time, so by placing him back into his natural surroundings, the opportunity to create funny set- piece's are few and far between.The dentally-challenged Brit is instead lumped with a dull romance with Shagwell, which is a carbon-copy of the relationship between Powers and Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), only with the roles reversed. In fact, Powers seems to play second-fiddle to Dr. Evil, whose ridiculously outlandish plots and newly-created sidekick Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) annoy his estranged son Scott Evil (Seth Green) and provide the majority of the film's laughs. An early scene where Evil appears on Jerry Springer with his son is hilarious, and the film is at its most inspired when the focus is on the bad guys. The Spy Who Shagged Me is also more gross-out than it's predecessor, continuing a trend set by There's Something About Mary (1998) and re-establishment of the teen sex comedy set by American Pie (1999), so Myers introduces a vile character called Fat Bastard who speaks with a Scottish accent and is permanently covered with chicken bits, whose scenes tend to induce more cringes than laughs. It's funny enough to justify its third instalment, but it lacks the satire, sweetness and freshness of the original.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is an excellent movie with a well developed plot and an outstanding comedic cast. It is everything a sequel should be, a film that both continues and expands on the previous movie. Here, we have a bigger and better adventure for the title character, putting him up against Dr. Evil once again, and including the addition of some great new characters, including Austin's love interest Felicity, who have a great back and forth with one another, as well as Evil's little clone Mini-Me, who steals every scene he is in. I did think it went out of the way to be overly complicated. The plot was far more convoluted and a lot less straight forward in comparison to the first Austin Powers. It's just that, at times, it felt like it was trying too hard to be bigger than its predecessor rather than being its own movie. The cast is stellar, with each member, old and new, fitting in effortlessly to this absurd, wacky universe. Mike Myers steals the show, of course, playing three characters this time around, with the likes of Heather Graham, Seth Green, Michael York and Verne Troyer shining in their respective roles. Ridiculous fun from beginning to end. Zany hilarity, I would certainly recommend Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me to anyone looking for a good comedy adventure. Austin Powers must put a stop to Dr. Evil's next big plan while also gaining his manhood back. Best Performance: Mike Myers