Austin Powers, a decent idea for a skit, was overextended in his first feature film, and every subsequent sequel can only extend the overkill. There is already, in just the second sequel, a "Twelve Days of Christmas" feeling of picking up baggage as we go. (Did we really need to bring back Fat Bastard? Will we need, next time, to bring back the freckle-faced and flaking-skinned Goldmember?) Sure, the running time can be padded with peepee-poopoo jokes, and incongruous spoofs of rap music, blaxploitation films, The Silence of the Lambs, what-have-you. And suddenly our swinging superspy can develop parental-approval issues. But what has any of this to do with the original premise? The final revelation, via a Galaxy Far Far Away, should be enough to sour you if you weren't soured already. On the plus side, Michael Caine, whose eyeglasses in his Harry Palmer roles were clearly one of the inspirations for Austin Powers, looks to be a smart choice for the hero's father, though not without some sort of time-travel rationale, never forthcoming. (Was not Austin a full-blown adult in the Sixties?) And the sight gag of our hero atop Mini-Me's shoulders under a janitor's coat -- a sharply tapering figure teetering around on tiny legs -- is a sight for sore eyes. And the bit about subtitles partially disappearing over a white background was a bright idea, albeit dimly, dirtily carried out. (Without scatology, the film would be held necessarily to skit-length.) And there's one sophisticated line of dialogue, quoted here in its entirety if it will save you the bother: "There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures. And the Dutch." With Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, Seth Green, Michael York; directed by Jay Roach. (2002) — Duncan Shepherd
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