Fellman's Movie Reviews

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is a 1999 comedy written and starring Mike Myers. Myers plays the title character, Austin Powers, as well as his nemesis, Dr. Evil, and another character, Fat Bastard. Other stars of the movie include Heather Graham, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Seth Green, Mindy Sterling, Rob Lowe, and Verne Troyer. This film is the second installment in the Austin Powers trilogy. It is the sequel to Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and the lead-in to Austin Powers in Goldmember. 

This film was commercially successful when it came out. That doesn’t make it good. In my opinion, this movie is ½ recycled jokes and ½ of one big joke that started in the beginning of the movie and just ran for an hour and a half. It’s lazy writing. It’s a carbon copy of the first movie with a couple of tweaks and a different character here and there. It just shows the limits of Mike Myers’ ability as a writer and filmmaker. And more so, proves how easy it is to give the masses exactly what they want if your demographic is the least common denominator. It’s exactly how Adam Sandler made his career for 30 years.  

Aside from that, the best thing about this movie is the music. I think the producers knew what kind of a movie this was, so they just figured “hey, what if we put some killer rock music in the background, just to groove to, so people won’t be so upset by how lame this movie is all the time?” I mean, they probably didn’t phrase it like that. But that’s what I was thinking when I heard some of the music. Because the movie itself isn’t really worth watching.  

And it’s funny, because I’m usually one to say, “you should see this, just to say you’ve seen it.” Or “you should watch this just because it’s part of a trilogy.” But honestly, this one and the sequel aren’t worth your time. They’re just not good movies. As far as comedies go, they’re not funny. It’s like A Night at the Roxbury. I chuckled here and there. There’s some parts where you go “that was probably funny when I was in high school”. But aside from that, I was mostly just watching it, waiting for it to be over.  

So, no. Don’t go see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. It might be part of a trilogy, but there are much better trilogies out there that you could be watching. Or you could watch the real James Bond. Those are great movies. You’ll never find a bad review of a James Bond movie. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…