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Dom Robinson reviews

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery places Wayne's World's Mike Myers in the title role of a James Bond spoof. The world is being held to ransom for a considerable sum by Dr. Evil (again played by Myers). If they don't pay up $100 billion, the madman will tunnel into the earth's core and set off a nuclear warhead, resulting in every volcano erupting simultaneously and signalling the end of the world.

Before this happens though, the action begins in 1967 and Dr. Evil is overplaying his hand once again. To escape our intrepid hero, he climbs into a cryogenic rocket which takes him into space for the next thirty years. However, he didn't reckon on Powers' pursuit, freezing himself in time as well until Dr. Evil returned to Earth.

Now it's 1997, Evil returns and Powers is defrosted. What follows is a series of very funny sketches as Evil takes on the world and Powers tries to put it back to rights. Most of the comedy is derived from Powers trying to apply 60's logic to a 90's world and his unquestionable sexual powers amongst the female members of Earth, with plenty of double-entrendre thrown in for good measure.

In the old days, Powers' girlfriend was Mrs Kensington (played by Mimi Rogers), but in the 90's it's her daughter Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley). She vows never to end up in bed with Austin, but you know how the story ends in the regular Bond films... Also, whereas Bond films have bad girls as well as good girls, the bad alternative here is portrayed by Fabiana Udenio as Alotta Fagina (!)

Add to this cameos from several people including Carrie Fisher, Burt Bacharach, Rob Lowe, Susannah Hoffs, Christian Slater and Roseanne's ex, Tom Arnold and you have a comedy which I thought would be way too over-the-top to be funny before I saw it, particularly since both Wayne's World 2 and ..Axe Murderer needed much improvements making to them, but one that I found myself laughing out loud to when I did watch it.

Finally, I understood a joke about Prince Charles was meant to be edited out of this film, but I definitely heard one so I presume it's been reinstated. The reason was that the UK cinema release happened to come on the Friday following the death of Princess Diana. It's a good job that the John Goodman comedy King Ralph wasn't released at the same time otherwise we could be living as a republic now :)


Movie pic

Vanessa always had a taste
for the nice things in life...

First off, Fox have corrected the mistake that blighted their first DVD release, Titanic. This time we are treated to an anamorphic picture which benefits from 33% extra resolution. Also, we get the film presented in its correct theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, whereas Americans had a version with the matte opened up to 1.93:1. It didn't suffer because of it in terms of the framing, but the 2.35:1 ratio does look better.

There are no artefacts to be found in the picture and overall, the word "stunning" could easily be applied. Due to its comic nature, most of the film is dressed in shades of different stark, bright colours. A low bitrate may have resulted in such a film being made to look like a ZX Spectrum crashing, but thankfully the average bitrate is an excellent 8.33Mb/s, regularly peaking over 9Mb/s and it's all on a dual-layer disc.

The sound quality is also top-notch. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and plenty of swingin' sixties tunes from the impressive opener, Quincy Jones and his Orchestra doing the "Soul Bossa Nova", through Brazil's soccer anthem, "Mas Que Nada" and offerings from The Lightning Seeds, The Divinyls, The Cardigans, Space, Edwyn Collins and Susannah Hoffs, to Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking".

There has been talk of sound dropouts which forced Fox to reprint the title. However, since I didn't spot any of these, perhaps the disc I saw came from the second batch?


Movie pic

A couple of juicy ones
gave Vanessa a squeal of delight...

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

There are 24 chapters covering 91 minutes which covers all the major scenes. The theatrical trailer is also included.

Languages and Subtitles :

There's just one language on this disc - English, but it is available in Dolby Digital 5.1. There are also English subtitles for the hard of hearing. I spotted one slight error. When Austin says hello to his Italian boots in the same language, it looks like it was meant to be in italics, but someone's only put in the flag to close italics, so it reads, "Buon giorno,[/I] boys.", so similar to HTML code.

Deleted scenes :

There's five deleted scenes which include two alternative endings. Owners of the Region 1 DVD will think we're missing out because they had seven scenes in total. However, the extra two, both featuring what happened as a result of Dr. Evil's henchmen being offed, have been put back into the film itself.

Cameo Menu :

Instead of flicking through the chapter selection, you can find your favourite cameo piece featuring one of Carrie Fisher, Burt Bacharach, Rob Lowe, Christian Slater and Tom Arnold instantly with this menu. It's not an essential addition, but it's a nice option to have.

Audio commentary :

A full-length commentary track from director Jay Roach and the film's star, Mike Myers.

Cast biographies and filmographies :

And you get exactly that for Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Mimi Rogers and Robert Wagner.

Menu :

The main menu looks very good with a shot of Liz and Mike in front of a swirling green and purple background, mirroring that seen on the cover. There's also a small piece of backing spy-theme music which is recycled over and over again. The chapter selection menus are excellent being both animated and scored.


Movie pic

This wasn't in her "job" description...

Content-wise, this DVD has everything that its Region 1 counterpart has, bar a few trailers for other films featuring some of the film's stars and a fullscreen option (so no loss there). Don't forget though that we actually get the film in its correct ratio. It's also pleasing to see so many extras and the amount of effort that's gone into a DVD that's essentially a back-catalogue title, when they are usually given the short shrift.

As for the price, that's still a thorny issue since Fox still insist on charging over twenty quid. However, it seems the December titles, all of which are also back-catalogue titles, will be now reduced to a penny under that amount. If you can get this title for around this price, it's definitely worth a purchase. 

FILM	 		: ****½
PICTURE QUALITY		: *****
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: ***½
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ****½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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Recent Posts

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Andy Serkis Batman Benedict Cumberbatch call of duty Calvin Harris Chris Hemsworth Dave Bautista doctor who Domhnall Gleeson doom Drake E3 2017 E3 2018 Ed Sheeran grand theft auto Grand Theft Auto V GTA gta5 gta 5 gta v Idris Elba Inside No.9 Jenna Coleman Jennifer Lawrence Jess Glynne Justin Bieber los santos Michael Fassbender Murray Gold Oscar Isaac Peter Capaldi Reece Shearsmith rockstar Sam Smith Samuel L. Jackson Scarlett Johansson Sia Stan Lee Stanley Tucci star wars Steven Moffat Steve Pemberton Taylor Swift Toby Jones Woody Harrelson

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