Upon learning that his father has been kidnapped, Austin Powers must travel to 1975 and defeat the aptly named villain Goldmember, who is working with Dr. Evil. Dr. Evil and Mini-Me have somehow escaped from a maximum security prison and the duo team up with Goldmember. Together they formulate a plan for world domination. And this particular scheme requires a large amount of time-travel, and kidnapping Austin Powers' father, England's master spy, Nigel Powers. As Austin chases Dr. Evil, Mini-Me and Goldmember through time, he stops in 1975 to "connect" with an old girlfriend, detective Foxxy Cleopatra, and requests her help to track the villains and save his father. I saw Goldmember in New York on July 10 at an exhibitors screening. I'll admit I laughed quite hard at certain points in the film. However, on reflection, I can barely remember what it was that made me laugh, which suggests it wasn't really all that funny. After a pretty darn entertaining opening sequence, things take a turn for the sour - the character Goldmember is remarkably unfunny - I don't think he gets a single laugh the entire film, the product placement and obvious "MTV video" moments from The Spy Who Shagged Me are back and even more prevelent than before.<br/><br/>SPOILERS - some of the cameos were extraordinarily humorous, without naming names, but the Britney Spears appearance was cold, calculated, and incredibly unfunny (the audience didn't react at all). And the Osbournes really need to go away. END SPOILERS<br/><br/>Everyone is probably going to go see this movie, so go right ahead. But Beyonce, for all her attractiveness, is a worse actress than Heather Graham (Believe it! It is actually possible to be worse than Graham was in the second film), and there's just a lot less to laugh at.<br/><br/>Michael Caine is a highlight as Nigel Powers. And I enjoyed Mini-me more in this one than in the last. And as I said before, there ARE some good laughs. It just doesn't hold a candle to the hilarious first film… and it isn't even as good as The Spy Who Shagged Me. The latest installment of the Austin Powers saga has many funny moments, and there is much hard-laughing. And there are no "bad moments" (unlike other films). The biggest problem is that I was expecting more, and expecting that the laughter would be constant. It was not, but still overall this is an excellent film. Nothing to write home about, though nothing to stay home about either, especially if you're a dyed-in-the-polyester Powers fan.
Zebulher replied
326 weeks ago