SPOILER ALERT with Jimmy Nichols: Austin Powers International Man of Mystery: Let’s get groovy baby!

Over the course of the last few months, we have watched and reviewed some of the most critically successful movies of all time. Whether it be newer movies like “Sinners,” “Bugonia” and “One Battle After Another,” or older films like “The Green Mile” and “Good Will Hunting,” we have watched some of the best Hollywood has to offer. 

However, after watching so many fantastic, well-made movies, the brain needs a break. It is hard to watch so many great movies back-to-back because after a while, everything starts to blend. 

There are so many serious, dramatic actors putting on the performance of their lives, while the writers and directors are looking to do the most emotional damage to the viewer. It was time to take a break from this genre and watch some good slapstick comedy. 

Something that is not reinventing the wheel, but it is still enjoyable to watch. Enter “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.”  

This movie has been on my watch list for some time. I have seen several clips from across the trilogy of movies, and I knew this would be a fun watch. 

Pulling double duty in the movie is the writer of the film, Mike Myers. No doubt where Michael B. Jordan drew inspiration from for “Sinners,” Myers plays both the protagonist, Austin Powers, and the villain, Dr. Evil.  

The movie starts in 1967 with Austin Powers being the most popular spy who has ever lived. He has people chasing after him on the streets, screaming his name as he gets into his Union Jack-wrapped car.  

After thwarting Dr. Evil’s plan and chasing him through the Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swingers Club, Dr. Evil escaped to space in a cryogenic sleep chamber inside a Big Boy statue.  

Vowing to defeat Dr. Evil, Powers also enters cryogenic sleep only to be awakened when Dr. Evil returns. Thirty years pass and bring the film to the year it was released, 1997. 

  Dr. Evil returns to Earth, planning to destroy the world. Knowing there is only one man capable of defeating him, the British Ministry of Defense wakes up Powers and sends him to Las Vegas to take down the villain. 

The movie then shows the relics of a different time trying to adjust to the new world they are in. Dr. Evil starts pitching evil plans, including blackmailing Prince Charles, claiming he had an affair to force him into a divorce, or blasting a hole in the ozone layer to warm the planet. 

However, his henchmen informed these events have already happened, so he decides to drill a nuke to the core of the earth to destroy the world. Dr. Evil plans to hold the world hostage for a million dollars, before Number Two, the person who ran the company in his absence, informs him that is essentially nothing now. 

He raises the price to $100 billion. Powers, meanwhile, is learning how the world no longer views his lifestyle as appropriate. In the 60s, men wanted to be him and women wanted to be with him. He would sleep around and, even characters in the movie say, was viewed as Britain’s biggest sex symbol. 

Now, he is told his swinging lifestyle is out because of health concerns when it comes to living a promiscuous life. As soon as he wakes up, he sees his old partner’s daughter who is his age, and he falls hard for her. 

Vannessa Kensington is who he loves, and he wants to be with her so badly. However, Vannessa resists his charm because she does not like his swinging lifestyle.  

Eventually, he wears her down and promises that if she chooses him, he will be a one-woman man. Before we get to that point, the two need to defeat Dr. Evil. 

The rest of this movie is one of the funniest times I have had. It has sight gags, like Powers or Vanessa being naked, but the audience cannot see their areas because the other keeps holding things up to shield the audience’s eyes. 

Another part is the transitions. In the movie, there are three transitions of it just cutting to Powers dancing around a room. It is one of the funniest running bits in the movie because it makes no sense and serves no purpose other than to make the audience laugh. 

One of the other parts of the movie that has some humor is some of the characters’ names. A good example of this is Power’s information officer, Basil Exposition, because the only time he is on screen is to deliver information to help move the plot along. 

The movie is clearly making fun of spy movies like James Bond. Examples are the tech guy who makes gadgets and provides information to the spy, the spy falling in love with his female counterpart, and the villain thinking he has killed them, but leaving before the job is done. 

“Austin Powers International Man of Mystery” is a hoot and a holler. Will it be the best movie you ever see? Probably not, but it is such a fun watch, and it is hard to find any part of it boring.