Austin Powers: Goldmember 2002
I didn’t think much of the first Austin Powers movie, but by the time the second one rolled around I thought it was actually pretty good. The running gags, for whatever reason, seem to get funnier with repetition. It’s like the Three Stooges or something.
But with the third installment I’m back to being disappointed. The new character, Goldmember, just wasn’t funny. And he didn’t really fit with the rest of this large cast. Fat Bastard returns and remains unfunny as well. On the DVD the director says that they realized it was best to tease the audience with Goldmember rather than keep him front and center. I think that’s his way of saying Mike Meyers wanted the character so they just put the minimum in that Mike would let them get away with. The character is just too odd to work and I just don’t get the thing with him being able to bend his legs over his head. I’m not a big fan of improv and this installment seems to just let things ride more than in the past. While that should work since we know all the little things the characters do, it falls flat. There’s perspiration but no inspiration. There are some big production numbers that seem to be there more for the sake of the actors than the audience.
The DVD had some funny pieces that probably should have stayed in the movie. In particular a scene with Seth Green taking his father’s place as Number 2 shows him the latest money-making scheme: alpacas. It wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but inside-funny. Another scene has the song Alfie (only “Austin") as Austin misses his father. But then they drift to various other cast members for good results (Number 2 in drag with Rob Lowe; the Frau riding an S&M sailor). But the song itself was a little too sentimental despite the visuals.
Despite critics who seem to have resigned themselves to going along with this franchise, I feel like it has taken a big downturn. I’ll give this a D+.