Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
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| Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | |
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 The Theatrical Poster For Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me |
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| Directed by | Jay Roach |
| Produced by | Donna Langley Michael De Luca Erwin Stoff John S. Lyons Eric McLeod Mike Myers Jennifer Todd Suzanne Todd |
| Written by | Mike Myers Michael McCullers |
| Starring | Mike Myers Heather Graham Michael York Robert Wagner Rob Lowe |
| Music by | George S. Clinton Quincy Jones (Song: Soul Bossa Nova) |
| Cinematography | Ueli Steiger |
| Editing by | Debra Neil-Fisher Jon Poll |
| Distributed by |  New Line Cinema Entertainment Film Distributors |
| Release date(s) | June 11, 1999 June 11, 1999 June 17, 1999 July 30, 1999 |
| Running time | 95 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $33,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $310,000,000 (estimated) |
| Preceded by | Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) |
| Followed by | Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, released in 1999, is the second film in the Austin Powers series. The series began with Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and continued in Austin Powers in Goldmember. The film was directed by Jay Roach, co-written by Mike Myers and screenwriter Michael McCullers, and once again stars Myers as the title character. Myers also plays Dr. Evil and Fat Bastard.
The film's title is a play on the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me and contains plot elements from James Bond films Diamonds Are Forever (Laser Gun Plot and Cloning) , You Only Live Twice (Secret Volcano Base) , Moonraker (Outer Space Ventures), The Man With The Golden Gun (Mini Me based on character Nick Nack from Bond film mentioned) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (opening sequence in which Vanessa Kensington dies).
The film grossed around US$310 million in worldwide ticket sales, making more money during its opening weekend than the entire box office proceeds of its predecessor.
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[edit] Plot
NATO’s monitoring facility observes the return of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) and informs British intelligence. At Dr. Evil’s Seattle headquarters, Dr. Evil is presented with a one-eighth-size clone of himself (Verne Troyer) whom he calls Mini-Me. Number Two (Robert Wagner), who survived his incineration towards the end of the previous film, also reveals the enormous profits they have made by legitimately investing in a previously unknown startup company called “Starbucks”. However, Dr. Evil is unimpressed and unveils his latest evil plan—he has developed a time machine to go back to the sixties and steal Austin Powers’ (also Mike Myers) mojo a fluid inside his body that's the source of Austin's skills and his sexual prowess.
Dr. Evil and Mini-Me go back to 1969 and meet up with a younger Number Two (Rob Lowe) and (a not-so-young) Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling). A disgruntled “Scottish Guard” with unusual eating habits called Fat Bastard (Mike Myers) has been hired to extract Austin’s mojo from his frozen body at the Ministry of Defence Cryo Chamber.
Meanwhile, back in 1999, Austin is still enjoying his honeymoon with his wife—the former Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley). Unfortunately, something goes amiss, and it turns out that she is actually one of Dr. Evil’s kamikaze fembots who attempts to kill Austin but eventually self-destructs.
British intelligence warns Austin that one of Dr Evil’s agents is after him, and during a photo shoot the wanton Ivana Humpalot (Kristen Johnston) seduces him, but at the last moment she admits to her orders and claims he is too sexy. They then proceed to have sex in her bed. Unfortunately they do not get far before he discovers that he has lost his mojo.
The MOD learns that Dr. Evil has developed a time machine and sends Austin back to 1969 with its own time travel device, in a convertible Volkswagen New Beetle painted with 60's LSD-themed colors. Austin arrives back at a party in his London pad and with the assistance of a CIA agent, Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham), escapes another assassination attempt by two of Dr. Evil’s operatives. However, the two of them are chased by Mustafa (Will Ferrell), yet another of Dr. Evil's henchmen, and when caught he reveals the existence of a secret volcano lair (due to an inability to withhold the answer should he be asked the exact same question three times in a row), but is prevented from divulging its location by the intervention of Mini-Me. After examining photographs from the crime scene at MOD headquarters, Austin identifies Fat Bastard as the perpetrator of the theft.
At Dr. Evil’s secret volcano lair, Fat Bastard arrives with Austin’s mojo. Dr. Evil drinks some of it and engages in some “private time” with Frau Farbissina. This results in an awkward “sometime after” situation when Frau reveals that she is “late.” However, at the same moment Scott Evil arrives through the time portal. Dr. Evil announces his latest plan: to hold the United States — and the whole world — ransom by threatening to destroy Washington D.C., and then additional major cities each hour, using a giant laser on the moon.
In London, Austin and Felicity get to know each other, but he has to reject her advances owing to the loss of his mojo. Under MOD instructions to implant a homing device, Felicity seduces Fat Bastard. Unfortunately, it is left in a public toilet, but a stool sample from the scene reveals traces of a rare vegetable that only grows on one Caribbean island.
Austin and Felicity arrive on the island but are apprehended. They are put in a cell with a single guard who is overcome by the fact that Felicity shows off her breasts, upon which the mesmerized guard falls into a pool of lava. Dr. Evil and Mini-Me leave for the moon to install the giant laser and are followed by Austin and Felicity, who hitch a ride on Apollo 11. In Dr. Evil’s moon base, Austin battles with Mini-Me, whom he eventually flushes into space.
As Austin confronts Dr. Evil, the giant laser is fired, but Austin manages to divert it and save Washington D.C., although Felicity is killed by poison gas. However, using Dr. Evil’s time portal Austin travels back ten minutes and meets up with himself to save both the world and Felicity.
Foiled again, Dr. Evil initiates the self-destruction mechanism of the moon base and escapes in his rocket after throwing the bottle of Austin's mojo in the air. He fails to catch it and it crashes on the floor, destroyed, but Felicity points out that all the things he has done show that he never really lost it in the first place. With seconds to spare they escape through the time portal to 1999.
Fat Bastard makes another attempt to assassinate Austin but is foiled by Felicity. Finally, Dr. Evil recovers Mini-Me from space and vows to “get” Austin Powers.
During the closing credits, it is revealed on the Jerry Springer Show that Scott (Seth Green) was not created in a test tube but is actually the love child of Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina. The closing credits also reveal that there are two Austins in 1999 as both Austins escaped Dr. Evil's moonbase using the time machine.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Production
[edit] Title censorship
When the film was released, the title proved quite controversial in the United Kingdom, where the word shag is used to refer to sexual intercourse. In North America, where the film was produced, the term is not normally used to refer to sex, and as such is understood simply as a quaint British English expression.[citation needed]
In the UK, two sets of TV adverts for the film existed, pre- and post-watershed. The former was designed to air during daytime hours and only gave part of the title, (Austin Powers: The Spy Who—), before cutting off with one of a range of slightly suggestive scenes from the film, such as Austin squeezing out the contents of a sunscreen bottle. The post watershed adverts, aired later in the evening, gave the full title. There were also two variations of the movie posters; one of them asterisked out the middle of the offending word or had named the film as Austin Powers 2.
Singapore briefly forced a title change to The Spy Who Shioked Me (shioked means “treated nicely”). In Finland the film was called Agentti joka tuuppasi minua (The spy who bumped me), in China The Spy Who Liked Me a Lot. The Italian version was titled La spia che ci provava, which can be roughly translated as The spy who tried to seduce, but in a slightly ruder way.
Not all countries translated the title into something less raunchy. The Norwegian title of the movie is Spionen som spermet meg, which is a slightly dirtier way of saying “The Spy Who Ejaculated on Me”.
[edit] Soundtrack
| More Music From And Inspired By Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | |||||
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| Soundtrack | |||||
| Released | 1999 | ||||
| Genre | Movie Soundtrack | ||||
| Length | 45:20 | ||||
| Label | Maverick, Warner Bros. | ||||
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| Austin Powers series chronology | |||||
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The movie's soundtrack contains the 1999 smash hit "Beautiful Stranger" by Madonna. The song won a Grammy in 2000. Mike Myers appears as Austin Powers in the video, directed by Brett Ratner.
Dr. Evil also sings a parody of Bill Withers song "Just the Two of Us", referring in this case to his clone Mini-Me.
[edit] Original Soundtrack tracklisting
- "Beautiful Stranger" - Madonna
- "My Generation" - The Who (live)
- "Draggin' The Line" - R.E.M.
- "American Woman" - Lenny Kravitz
- "Word Up" - Melanie B - credited as "Melanie G (aka Scary Spice)"
- "Just The Two Of Us" - Dr. Evil (Dr. Evil mix)
- "Espionage" - Green Day
- "Time of the Season" - Big Blue Missile/Scott Weiland
- "Buggin'" - The Flaming Lips
- "Alright" - The Lucy Nation
- "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" - Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello
- "Soul Bossa Nova (Dim's Space-A-Nova)" - Quincy Jones & His Orchestra
The soundtrack sold over 1 million copies in the USA. It was certified Platinum. A second soundtrack was also released, entitled More Music From the Motion Picture.
[edit] More Music tracklisting
- "Austin Meets Felicity" - Film Dialogue
- "Am I Sexy?" - Lords of Acid
- "I'm a Believer" - The Monkees
- "Magic Carpet Ride" - Steppenwolf
- "American Woman" - The Guess Who
- "Get The Girl" - The Bangles
- "Bachelord Pad" (FPM Edit) - Fantastic Plastic Machine
- "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
- "Crash!" - Propellerheads
- "Time of the Season" - The Zombies
- "Dr. Evil" - They Might be Giants
- "The Austin Powers Sagaphonic Medley" - George S. Clinton
- "Beautiful Stranger" (Calderone Radio Mix) - Madonna
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me at the Internet Movie Database
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at Rotten Tomatoes
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