Austin Powers: Goldmember

Austin Powers, everyone's favourite swinging superspy, returns again in Goldmember. Not content with playing three roles in the last film, Mike Myers opts for four in this one, and is also joined by Michael Caine and Beyonce Knowles.

Okay, so this is a comedy. Is it funny? YES. Does anything else matter then? Not really. The plot is sketchy at best, and the film itself is little more than a bunch of loosely connected jokes and locations, but you find yourself simply not caring because it more than fulfils it's primary need to be funny.

The cameos are startling and hilarious (don't let anyone spoil them for you if you are unaware of them - in fact, punch them in the face if they tell you who's in it) and Myers is in good form, though perhaps falls a little flat as the newest character, Goldmember (who's more bizarre than funny). Beyonce Knowles does okay as Foxxy Cleopatra - an obvious homage to blaxploitation heroine Pam Grier, and Michael Caine is perfectly cast as Austin Powers' dad.

So, if you want a laugh, this is it. As other reviewers have noted elsewhere - not all the jokes work, but they come at you so rapidly that you hardly have time to stop laughing at the ones that do. It makes you wonder why Myers had a break from the series to do something as poorly-received as The Love Guru.

TRIVIA: Bucking the usual trend of sequels, Goldmember made more money at the box office than either of it's predecessors.

DIRECTOR: Jay Roach
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers
KEY ACTORS: Mike Myers, Beyonce Knowles, Michael Caine, Seth Green, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Verne Troyer.

RELATED TEXTS:
- The first two Austin Powers films, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
- The Austin Powers series (besides being a parody of James Bond) owes a lot to the swinging 60s spy comedies Our Man Flint and In Like Flint.
- The young Michael Caine footage from Goldmember was taken from the film Hurry Sundown.

AWARDS
Nominated for various comedy and popular choice awards.