Movie Description
AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY is the first in the comic series starring this bodacious 1960s spy played by the hilarious Mike Myers. Decked out in the gaudiest mod attire--ruffled shirts, tight-fitting candy-colored suits, horn-rimmed glasses, and prosthetic teeth--Austin Powers is anything but subtle. His near-constant exclamations of "Groovy, Baby," accompanied an uncandid flash of his flirtatious smile, only add to his wonderfully exaggerated hipster persona. Plotwise, Austin Powers and his enemy Dr. Evil (also played by Myers) awake from 30 years of frozen, cryogenic sleep to find themselves in the year 1997. A conniving Dr. Evil plots a reign of terror and mass destruction, but finds that his ideas and methods are a bit out of date. Our hero encounters a similar dilemma, realizing that he is definitely behind the times. A series of well-meaning though bumbling efforts to thwart the insidious Dr. Evil keep Austin Powers and his devastatingly beautiful partner Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) hard at work as they travel from London to Las Vegas. With this tongue-in-cheek send-up of James Bond spy films and 1960s cliches, director Jay Roach compliments Myers' over-the-top performance with a lighthearted soundtrack, fun photography, and amusingly retro sets.
| Credits | | Producer: | Demi Moore, Suzanne Todd | | Cast: | Anastasia Nicole Sakelaris, Barbara Ann Moore, Brian George, Carlton Lee Russell, Chekesha Van Putten, Clint Howard, Cynthia Lamontagne, Donna W. Scott, Elya Baskin, Joe Son, Laura Payne-Gabriel, Mark Bringleson, Patrick Bristow, Robin Gammell, Steve Monroe, Ted Kairys, Vince Melocchi |
| Details | | Sound: | HiFi Sound, Stereo Sound, Surround Sound |
Notes
Theatrical release date: May 2, 1997.
AUSTIN POWERS includes a series of cameos: Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri (both of tv's Saturday Night Live), Carrie Fisher (who played Princess Leia in STAR WARS), Susanna Hoffs (who was in the band The Bangles, and is married to director Roach), and Christian Slater and Matthew Sweet (who play security guards).
The costumes for the fashion shoot sequence actually mimic the costumes worn for a shoot in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 BLOW-UP.
Austin Powers's phone uses the same ring as the phone in OUR MAN FLINT, the 1966 spy film starring James Coburn.
Editorial Reviews
"...A welcome return to form for [Myers]..."
Sight and Sound - p.37-8 - Ben Thompson (09/01/1997)
"...Mr. Myers turns his own fondness for Austin into an easily acquired taste....AUSTIN POWERS mixes movie parody with culture shock..."
New York Times - p.C7 - Janet Maslin (05/02/1997)
"...Engagingly daft....You can giggle at the sheer joy Mike Myers takes in making himself as grotesque as possible....No one does it better than Myers..."
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman (05/09/1997)
"...A funny movie that only gets funnier the more familiar you are with the James Bond movies....What is best is the puppy-dog earnestness and enthusiasm that Myers brings to his role..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (05/02/1997)
"Myers threw us all a frickin' bone when he created Austin's pinky-gesturing, lip-pursing, Mr. Bigglesworth-stroking nemesis."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (04/01/2004)
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