While the third installment in the “Austin Powers” series isn’t as strong as the previous two, the film still holds up in comic style for most of its fans. It is also deemed the film that “answers all the questions,” a true claim that I believe will ruin the entire franchise if indeed another “Powers” movie is made.
Mike Myers, who already has three characters under his belt as Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and Fat Bastard, adds a fourth character this time around, the disgustingly inappropriate 1970s villain Goldmember, aptly named for his claim to fame. Goldmember, who kidnaps Austin’s father Nigel Powers (Michael Caine), jumps into the future with the use of Dr. Evil’s time machine to help in his latest scheme to terrorize the world.
Powers, while chasing Goldmember back and forth from the ‘70s to the future, runs into an old love, Foxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé Knowles), a character spoofed from the old blaxploitation heroines of the ‘70s. Foxy, who is supposedly aiding Austin in saving his dad and stopping Dr. Evil’s plot to destroy the world with a meteor, never really gets enough screen time to do anything.
The entire cast all returns, along with a truckload of cameo appearances ranging from Tom Cruise to Ozzy Osbourne, to try and make you laugh for the third time in a row. But it seems that Myers is aware his ideas are running out of steam, so this time around he plans to throw as many jokes at you as he can, praying that some of them will stick. And some do, but the others are so bad (or recycled) that you’ll wonder if our beloved super spy will ever see the light of a projector again.
The “Austin Powers” franchise took an obvious punch below the belt from “Goldmember,” which almost ruins the innovative concept first brought to the screen in 1997. Because Myers doesn’t exactly hit gold with his third and reportedly final installment of the “Austin Powers” trilogy, it may be the perfect time for him to throw in the glasses and fake teeth and pick up another character he can milk for a while.
3 / 5 Stars
Starring: Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, Michael Caine, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling, Verne Troyer, Fred Savage, Tom Cruise
Director: Jay Roach
