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The third
instalment of the Austin Powers franchise offers the same successful
mix as "The Spy Who Shagged Me".
Neil Smith
That means lavatory
humour, celebrity cameos, and devastatingly accurate parodies of
pop culture.
Operating under
the 'bigger is better' principle, "Goldmember" starts with an all-action
spoof sequence featuring some of Hollywood's most familiar faces.
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| Foxxxy
laaady |
Pausing briefly
to reacquaint us with Dr Evil (Myers, on top form), his wayward
son Scott (Green) and his pint-sized cohort Mini-Me (Troyer), Roach
proceeds to introduce some colourful new elements: leprous villain
Goldmember (Myers in blond wig and roller-skates), a sexy female
lead (Knowles), and the hero's long-lost superspy father (Caine).
All the above
figure in a thoroughly preposterous plot which finds Austin travelling
to the 70s in search of his kidnapped pa.
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| My boooooy
- shagadelic |
There he teams
up with the Afro-sporting double agent Foxxy Cleopatra (Knowles)
before zipping back to the future to thwart Dr Evil and Goldmember's
dastardly plan to take over the world.
The film makers
deserve credit for expanding so confidently on their original premise
and developing their universe in so many bizarre directions.
Not everything
is shagadelic, however. Robert Wagner is criminally underused as
Evil's suave Number Two, Myers' Fat Bastard character makes an unwelcome
return, while Caine delivers such a lazy performance one assumes
he was only doing it for his yacht.
"Goldmember"
is always amusing and often hilarious with production values that
rival those of a Bond film.
A little more
discipline from Roach and it might have been an improvement on its
predecessors and not merely their equal.
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