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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

A Techtite Review

The Film : Why hasn't there been more James Bond parodies? I don't man James Bond clones, where the main star slowly says his name among buxom models. I mean an honest to goodness parody, where the Bond series (as much as I love it) gets the respectful roasting it deserves. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery answers the call, and the end result is a very amusing concept, and a cute comedy.

The story involves a British agent from the 1960's chasing Dr. Evil, both played perfectly by Saturday Night Live star, Mike Meyers. The whole scene plays out like a parody of every cheezy 1960's flick, in a Technicolor dance floor, where the dancers wear every classic 1960's fashion extreme in the book (mini skirts, badly colored "suits," etc.). Dr. Evil escapes in a cryogenic freezing chamber, which in typical spy style, has been brilliantly hidden in a giant Big Boy restaurant statue. Austin must go back to his home base, and cryogenically freeze himself as well, to be ready for the time Dr. Evil returns.

Jump ahead to "present day." Dr. Evil's ship lands, and Austin is thawed. However, here's where the jokes begin; both are 1960's clichés out of their time. Dr. Evil plans to take over the world for one million dollars, only to have the Pentagon laugh at him for bothering them with such a "small" amount. Austin, meanwhile, still thinks of himself as the babe magnet, bad teeth and all. He bluntly asks his assigned partner on the case, Vanessa (Elisabeth Hurley), if she'd like to "shag, baby...yeah!" Of course, she thinks he's a jerk. However, it wouldn't be much of a James Bond parody, if she didn't warm up to him in the end, in typical Bond style.

Half the film's value owes no small part to James Bond films, including the way Dr. Evil is a dead ringer for Blofeld, Bond's recurring enemy in the first several films. His henchman is not unlike the oriental assassin with the "killer hat" that he'd throw at someone to cut them down to size. The joke here is, the man throws his shoe. There are salutes to other spy films and TV series interwoven into the story as well, such as the feminine yet robotic "fembots"...a term known most notably from the adversaries of the Bionic Woman on TV.

However, the other half of the film is assisted by brilliantly inspired time travel jokes. Cryogenic freezing, for example, has made Dr. Evil's pet cat lose all its hair, for a few amusing visual gags. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil's female henchwoman had his baby while he was away; a typical rebellious youth (Seth Green) who is not too thrilled with his "evil" father's return. Meanwhile, Austin's ex love from the past (Mimi Rogers) is on hand to Vanessa advice on how to handle him. This is an amusing sight in itself, when most of James Bond girlfriends are never seen from, heard from, or even mentioned again. How many of them would love to give the current lover a pointer or two...?

The end result is a fun spy comedy. It of course helps if you're a James Bond movie fan, though even those who aren't will enjoy the ribbing the film series gets, which it's deserved for years. It's amusing that Mike Meyers wrote this story, yet never offered it as a possible skit on Saturday Night Live. Oh well; their loss is cinema's gain...

The DVD : As one of the first DVDs ever distributed, this deserves accolades, even to this very day. Why? because while so many first-release DVDs had to be pulled, due to either lackluster bonus materials or lackluster movie transfer, this DVD deserves no complaints at all. Much like their DVD for Jim Carrey in The Mask, New Line Home Video again provides a top-notch DVD, even if the film on the disc was hardly Oscar-caliber. In other words, there's a lot more here than just the trailer!

First of all, the why-do-they-never-do-this-anymore? addition: both widescreen and full screen versions are offered. Full Screen pan-and-scan is on one side of the disc; widescreen is on side two. Both versions include optional audio commentary by Mike Meyers and Jay Roach. They also have been converted from the high definition transfer of the film, meaning this is just about as good of a version of the film as will ever appear on DVD.

Much like the film, some bonus materials are inspired. The cast bios, for example, include (where applicable) short clips of their work in other New Line Home Video movies. Sure, it's a blatant commercial for more of their DVDs. It's still amusing, though, to see Elisabeth Hurley's skimpily-dressed scene in Dangerous Ground, or any of the three New Line movies Mimi Rogers has starred in. In addition, there's a menu that allows you to jump to the scene where four cameos took place, including Carrie Fisher, Tom Arnold, Rob Lowe, and Burt Bacharach. "Music to Shag to" has a tease of the movie music, followed by an ad for the sountrack on CD. A "spy genre retrospective" is a mere slide show, though its 14 screens of information may be intriguing to spy-film fans. Topping off the unique additions is a final extra, which is a sexual product name I'll leave up to your imagination. Click it and be led to a screen where Austin says, "Oh, behave!"

Of course, the big addition you want to know about is the deleted scenes. A lucky 7 (or unlucky, if you think about it) deletions are offered, which includes two alternate endings. Mind you, neither ending is as good as the one chosen, though they're worth a look. Both conclude the movie with a bikini clad Vanessa in a raft with Austin, only to have him muse, "All my movies end this way, baby!" However, the first caps the film off with Michael York dangling from a rescue copter, complimenting Austin for a job well done before leaving to let Vanessa and Austin spend some time alone on the raft. The second pans away from the raft, to have York narrate an epilogue, which apparently was scrapped when they realized an epilogue made things too permanent; leaving the door slightly ajar for a possible sequel was a better plan. Of course, neither ending is as amusing as the final "nude yet not nude" visual gag with Hurley and Meyers, which was a far better finale to the film. Regardless, seeing alternative choices to end the film that are both so different from the actual ending, is amusing to see.

As for the other 5 deleted scenes... "The Henchman's Wife" is a sort of overly saccharine --and therefore, not too humerous-- look at how one of the evil henchman Austin kills has a wife and son at home, who hear about his death by steamroller at Dr. Evil's lair. In print, this sounds darkly funnier than it really is. A similar scene (this was apparently going to be a running gag, gratefully deleted) shows another henchman's bachelor party going on without him...though seeing the amusing plug for "Hooters" restaurants makes this much funnier than the first deletion was. Deletion #3 includes fellow Saturday Night Live star Cheri Oteri's scene --deleted from the film entirely!-- where a modern flight attendant nearly decks Austin for his sexist banter about stewardesses. Another deleted scene where Evil's henchman, Fendi (Robert Wagner) explains some of the oddball schemes they've done to keep their business afloat, including selling collectable plates of the "Cheeses of the World Series." The final deleted scene is of "Fendi's briefcase," where Fendi attempts to bribe Austin with a briefcase containing "one billion dollars." When Austin scans the money to notice the case is over $800 short, Fendi sighs, "I had to buy the case..." Nice deletions, though not as good as those in the DVD for the sequel. On the other hand, the movie itself is leaps and bounds better than the sequel, so...

	Final Rating : Large Crater. Why hasn't there been more James Bond parodies like this one? Mike Meyers provides the first of the best, and deserves the spoils.
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