Review: Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

This is a Resurfaced review written in 2002 or earlier. For more information, please visit this link: Resurfaced Reviews.

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Rating

Director

Jay Roach

Screenplay

Mike Myers, Michael McCullers

Length

1h 34m

Starring

Mike Meyers, Beyoncé Knowles, Seth Green, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling, Verne Troyer, Michael Caine, Fred Savage, Diane Mizota, Carrie Ann Inaba, Nobu Matsuhisa, Aaron Himelstein, Josh Zuckerman, Eddie Adams, Evan Farmer

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Buy/Rent Movie

Soundtrack

Poster

Source Material

Review

Retro super spy Austin Powers returns in his third film ostentatiously titled “Goldmember”. He must once again save the world from Dr. Evil and his minions, including a new weapon and a skin-eating Dutchman.

Mike Myers returns as the British import Austin Powers as well as three other roles. In each film, Myers adds a new, unusual character to the mix that only he can play. In “International Man of Mystery”, it was just Dr. Evil and Powers. Then in “The Spy Who Shagged Me”, he added an overweight counteragent named Fat Bastard. This time around, he adds a Dutchman brought into the future to exact revenge on Austin and his beloved father Nigel (Michael Caine). His name, like the James Bond “Goldfinger” counterpart, is Goldmember. Incredibly limber and loving disco, Goldmember’s one interesting quirk is that he likes to eat his own peeling skin.

In “Goldmember”, Dr. Evil is once again attempting to destroy the world, this time with a giant missile-bearing submarine. The catch is, while the villains have added more to their fighting force, Austin has added more to his. First, we have Foxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé Knowles) one of Austin’s old flames that he left behind when he came into the 1990s. Next is Austin’s father himself, Nigel Powers, who does not always help, but gets in the way at times. The final is a hotshot ingénue just added to the British intelligence team. Known simply as The Mole (Fred Savage), he is responsible for uncovering reconnaissance information from the enemy and becomes the center of many long and embarrassing jokes.

Myers is a sketch actor to the extreme. The talents that landed him on “Saturday Night Live” have served him well in the Austin Powers franchise. All of his characters are vivid and entertaining, but this time it seems as if he has gone too far. Goldmember is a pointless addition to the roster of characters. He has no charm, which is necessary for villains, but his skin-chewing antics and irritating vocal ramblings create an unwieldy and uninteresting character. Knowles is a funny, sassy and an all-around great addition to the cast. Caine is a terrific actor and he blends personalities with Myers to construct a memorable father figure, much like Sean Connery did with “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, but does it much better. Savage and his character are a waste. The mole jokes are not very funny and, outside of the fact that he is in the film seldom and only to be the brunt of jokes, is unnecessary and without class.

The plot is weak and unrefined and if it were not for some incredibly funny moments featuring Knowles and comic Nathan Lane, Fat Bastard and a doctor’s x-ray screen, the film would be a mire of unfortunate situations and non-clever humor. Jay Roach does as best he can with the screenplay. He continues many of the traditions from the previous films, including shadow-play moments, obscenity-covering objects and innuendo-laden imagery.

Overall, there is a core audience that will find anything Myers and his crew do funny, but most audiences will end up disgusted and unfulfilled.