In 2002 Mike Myers made the third and final film in the Austin Powers trilogy. Once more it was a big box office success. The film ratchets up Mike Myers' involvement another notch. After playing two roles in the first film and three roles in the second film, he now plays a fourth role, the title character Goldmember, in addition to Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and Fat Bastard.
Apart from the James Bond films there are references to many other films. To name but a few, there's "Foxy Brown", "Singing in the Rain" and "Saturday Night Fever". Some of the jokes are repeated from the first two films, but Mike Myers is brave enough to use mostly new ideas in the third film. He experiments with different layers of reality. We see a film within a film, in which the inner film retells the events of the outer film. This leads to amusing cameos by Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. Supposedly Brad Pitt also appeared, but I must have blinked and missed him.
I might have given the film five stars if it hadn't been for the mole jokes which were repeated so often that they became annoying rather than funny.
I've heard rumours that now, 13 years later, a fourth Austin Powers film will be made. I hope the rumours aren't true. The trilogy came to an end so tidily, neatly tying up all the loose ends. I don't feel that there's anything left to say. I fear that a new film would flop and discredit this brilliant set of films. Let's wait and see.
I hope Mike Myers finds another good franchise like this, as the man is very gifted.
ReplyDeleteBeing a bond fan I really enjoy these films, with the 2nd one being the marginal highlight.
Shrek is great too, but Myers has an elastic face, like Jim Carrey and deserves more live action fare.
The spy parody worked so well for Mike Myers. I doubt he'll top this in his career. But anything can happen.
DeleteI wish more films had been made 10 years ago, when the Austin Powers series still had momentum. Returning now after so many years seems somehow wrong.