I love spoof movies. The Naked Gun series, Airplane, Hot Shots, all of which follow a simple formula: Using intelligence to create a stupid movie. You have to be clever to make a film that is so wonderfully dumb, a fact that many movie-makers neglect these days. So to celebrate the glorious world of facetious films, I'm going to look a Spoof Movie trilogy, The Austin Power series, beginning with the first film, International Man of Mystery.
Directed by Jay Roach (who also directed the Meet The Parents series), released in 1997, and starring Mike Myers (who also wrote the screenplay), Liz Hurley, Michael York, Robert Wagner and Seth Green. The film and it's sequels are a spoof of spy films, predominantly the early James Bond movies, which satirizes the silly elements that we came to love about them. One of the funniest movies of the 90's, it deserves all the credit it has garnered over the years, so let's see why.
The movie opens in London, where the Swinging 60s are in full, eh, swing. Here we come across British spy Austin Powers (Myers), and his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil (also Myers). With help from British Intelligence Agent Basil Exposition (York), he tracks Dr. Evil to a nightclub, where Evil escapes inside a Rocket disguised as a 'Big Boy' statue, cryogenically freezing himself in the process. In the event that he should return, Austin volunteers to have himself frozen as well.
We then cut to 1997, where Dr. Evil has come back to Earth, and has been concocting, of course, a dastardly scheme. With the help of his number 2 man, Number 2 (Wagner) and several unscrupulous henchmen, they plan to threaten the world with a Nuclear Warhead, and ransom the World's Governments for $100,000,000,000. But he also has the issue of bonding with his rebellious teenage son Scott (Green), who was created from his frozen semen while he was in cryogenesis.
With Austin out of frozen stasis and ready to pursue Dr. Evil once again, he is assigned a partner to help him in his quest, and to help him acclimatize to the 90s, Vanessa Kensington (Hurley), the daughter of Austin's partner in the 60s. Together, Austin and Vanessa attempt to foil Evil's plans, but our villain is not prepared to go down so easily.
Yep, it's a comical look at classic Bond movies from the 60s and 70s. A super-evil villain wants to achieve supreme power, and it's up to our suave, sweet-talking hero to stop him, all the while trying to charm his astoundingly beautiful partner, although in this movie she has a normal name.
The majority of the humour that comes from the film is based around the cliches and laughable aspects that we all remember from those movies, usually revolving around the villains. Ridiculous schemes, dumb henchmen, silly names, maniacal laughter, long speeches, and best of all, the methods by which they try to kill the heroes. Sharks, laser traps, burning alive, drowning, the list goes on. This film, of course, takes full advantage of all of these. As a satire, it's pretty close to perfect. The jokes, the deadpan performances, the progression of Dr. Evils plan, and do I even have to mention the catchphrases: 'Yeah baby', 'Oh behave', 'One million dollars', you all know them and you all love them.
Nothing much else to say really. One of the best spoofs, one of the best comedies, and one of the most endearing films ever made. I would say check it out, but I know you already have.
No comments:
Post a Comment