Austin Powers

Austin Powers series
Directed by	Jay Roach
Written by	Mike Myers
Starring	Mike Myers as Austin Powers
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	1997 – 2002
Running time	4 hours, 43 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Austin Powers series is a series of comedy films beginning in 1997 that was written by and stars Mike Myers as the title character, directed by Jay Roach and distributed by New Line Cinema. It mainly spoofs the James Bond, Derek Flint, Harry Palmer, and Matt Helm franchises, and incorporates myriad other elements of popular culture.

The films poke fun at the outrageous plots, rampant sexual innuendo, and one-dimensional stock characters characteristically associated with '60s spy films, as well as the cliché of the ultra-suave male superspy. Contrary to the handsome, super-smooth leading men of the James Bond genre, Powers is repeatedly emphasized as being highly unattractive (he is especially known for his bad teeth) and dorky in the extreme.

The general theme of the films is that arch-villain Dr. Evil plots to extort large sums of money from governments or international bodies but is constantly thwarted by British super-spy Austin Powers. To incorporate cultural elements of the 1960s and 1970s all the films feature time travel as a plot device and deliberately overlook inconsistencies.

The Films

The series so far consists of the following three films :

• 1997 - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• 1999 - Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
• 2002 - Austin Powers in Goldmember

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly (5 October 2005), [1] actor Mike Myers discussed the possibility of studio sources moving forward with a fourth Austin Powers film. "There is hope!" says Myers of the latter. "We're all circling and talking to each other. I miss doing the characters." In an interview with IGN (May 16 2007), [2] IGN asked, "So no more Austin Powers?" and Myers said, "No, no, there is a fully conceived idea for a fourth and I can just say that it's from Dr. Evil's point of view. So if you balanced how much of it was Austin with Dr. Evil, it's more about Dr. Evil than Austin."

Characters

Main article: Characters in Austin Powers

Box office reception

The first film in the series, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery cost $16.5 million, opened on May 2, 1997, and made a modest impact, grossing US$53 million in its North American release. The film was not a major success in theatres, but became a hit and cult classic on the home video market and cable television. In June 1999, the film spawned a sequel, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. This, however, was a huge box office hit, the third-highest grossing film of the summer (Behind only Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Sixth Sense), earning US$206 million in its North American release. In its North American opening weekend it earned US$55 million (then the third biggest debut in box office history), and became the first movie sequel to outearn the original after only its first weekend. The 282% increase in total box office gross from the original to sequel is a feat beaten by Terminator 2: Judgment Day's 434% increase and The Color of Money's massive increase over The Hustler (7.6 for The Hustler to 52.2 million for The Color of Money). A third film, Austin Powers in Goldmember, was released in 2002 to similar fanfare, earning US$213 million. The Austin Powers trilogy is one of the few movie series in which every sequel has outearned the film that preceded it. As of 2006, a fourth installment in the series is in limbo, although comments made during the Special Features of the Goldmember DVD suggest that the series may not go beyond a trilogy. In May 2007, however, TV channel G4 informed viewers that a fourth film has been planned, with the story focusing on Dr. Evil's point of view.

Cars

There were two cars featured in the films both called the "Shaguar", a play on "Jaguar". The cars were a Jaguar E Type and XK8 convertible. He is also seen driving a modern Volkswagen Beetle convertible in the second movie. In addition, Nigel Powers' car is a Mini, which is able to travel under water and has a license plate reading "GR8SHAG". Also there were two cars made by the MOD to transport Austin back in time.

Original sources

Mike Myers himself has stated in interviews that the idea for Austin Powers came to him one night while driving home from hockey practice. Hearing the song The Look of Love by Burt Bacharach on his car radio, he wondered "Where have all the swingers gone?", and conceived the character who would become Austin Powers. The first phrase he thought the character might say was "Do I make you horny?" which later did indeed become a catch phrase for the character.

A Canadian by birth, Myers' parents are British and he holds dual nationality. Although the films parody the plots and characters of 1960s spy movies, the humour is influenced by Myers' British heritage particularly the bawdy Carry On films, Benny Hill and Peter Sellers of whom Myers is a self-confessed fan (his favourite films being the Bond spoof Casino Royale and The Party). Influences from Sellers' films are apparent throughout the series with the character of Austin Powers being inspired by Seller's portrayal of Roger Danvers in the 1972 film There's a Girl in My Soup. The name Austin Powers is probably inspired by the British Austin brand of motorcar. Other influences are The Beatles films, The Monkees television series and the cocktail party scene from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

The use of a car as a time travel device is a parody of the Back To The Future trilogy.

Characters

Powers' "cover persona" (to hide his job as an international agent) is as a fashion photographer, which provides an opportunity in the first two films to satirize Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up as well as Dean Martin's Matt Helm character. The signature eye glasses hail from the Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) films, but most clearly the iconic look of Peter Sellers in the mid-60s, which is seen in Casino Royale. Appropriately, Caine played Austin's father, Nigel Powers, in Goldmember (and wore the original glasses from The IPCRESS File).

Powers' nemesis is Dr. Evil, a character based on Blofeld of the Bond films. Other Bond inspired villains include Frau Farbissina, most probably based on From Russia with Love's Rosa Klebb and On Her Majesty's Secret Service's Irma Bunt; Dr. Evil's right hand man, Number 2, probably inspired by Thunderball's Emilio Largo and referring also to Number 2 in The Prisoner; Alotta Fagina, a pun on Goldfinger's Pussy Galore; Ivana Humpalot is a pun on "Xenia Onatopp"; and Random Task, again a pun, this time on Goldfinger's Oddjob. The figure "Goldmember" in the 2002-film (also the name of the film) is himself a stand-alone referral to the character Auric Goldfinger.

Michael York's character Basil Exposition is named Exposition because Basil literally provides the audience with the exposition of the plot. The name serves to parody M (or some other high ranking official) in the Bond movies who briefs Bond about his new mission. Like Basil, M makes use of sophisticated presentation devices to explain the "plot" and "characters". The Bond screenwriters often made these clunky scenes more entertaining by, for example, showing Bond being briefed in a secret cave in The Spy Who Loved Me) or by playing off Bond's one-upmanship with M.

As for the female lead characters, from "International Man of Mystery", Mrs. Kensington & her daughter Vanessa and the tight-fitting leather catsuits they wear are based on the female partners of John Steed, (especially Diana Rigg's character Emma Peel) from The Avengers

Felicity Shagwell in The Spy Who Shagged Me is based on three characters: The first a stereotypical "hippie chick" from the 1960s. The name is based on the double-entendre inspired names of several female James Bond characters such as "Pussy Galore", "Xenia Onatopp", "Holly Goodhead" or "Mary Goodnight" (in the French version of The Man with a Golden Gun, Britt Ekland's character is named "Bonne Nuit" while Heather Graham's "Shagwell" is dubbed "Bonne Baise" in the French version of The Spy Who Shagged Me, an obvious reference to the 1974 Bond movie). She's also considered as an American version of Modesty Blaise. Heather Graham also mentions on the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me DVD that her character is based on the title character played by Jane Fonda in 1968 film Barbarella.

Foxxy Cleopatra in Goldmember is clearly based on female characters from 1970's "Blaxploitation" or "Soul Cinema" motion pictures, especially those featuring Pam Grier. The name itself clearly is based on Foxy Brown (played by Grier) and Cleopatra Jones (played by Tamara Dobson). Other elements of her character are taken from Grier's characters in the films Coffy and Friday Foster. Teresa Graves's performance in the short-lived crime drama Get Christie Love! might also be an inspiration, but all of the vixens in the "soul cinema" genre might be considered formulaic.

A few other 1960s' films that seem to have been source material for the satirical blend of the characters:

• Dr. No (1962, Dr. No's HQ/Dr. Evil's HQ)
• You Only Live Twice (1967, the Blofeld/Dr. Evil appearance.)
• Casino Royale (1967, many elements, itself a spoof of the Bond films.)
• Blow-Up (1966, the virile fashion photographer.)
• Our Man Flint and In Like Flint (1966 and 1967, many elements. Austin, in 'The Spy Who Shagged Me,' says the latter title is his favorite movie.)
• The IPCRESS File (1965, Harry Palmer's glasses.)
• Alfie (1966, mentioned and parodied throughout all three movies)
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (Dr. Evil plays a duet of "What If God Was One of Us" on a large piano with MiniMe on a smaller keyboard in The Spy Who Shagged Me, a parody of a similar scene in the aforementioned film.

Scenes

The sequence in Goldmember, when Foxxy Cleopatra dubs what a character behind her is saying, is taken from After the Fox. A scene in the same film when Powers adjusts the fountain to make the statue urinate to a greater distance is taken from The Party.

Another major source of humour derives from Powers' having been cryogenically frozen in the 1960s and revived in the late 1990s (roughly parodying the 1966 spy series Adam Adamant Lives! about an Edwardian secret agent who was frozen) without having any sense whatsoever of changes that have occurred in society the intervening years. ..

"...but as long as people are still having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment, I'll be sound as the pound!" - Austin Powers.

Trivia

• The Austin Powers Theme (Soul Bossa Nova) by Quincy Jones, as remixed by DJ Green Lantern, was sampled in Ludacris's 2005 single, Number One Spot on his album The Red Light District. In its original mix, the song was featured in the 1964 movie, The Pawnbroker and the 1969 movie "Take the Money and Run." It also formed the basis for the hit 1991 rap song "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" by the Dream Warriors. Also, it was used as the theme to a 1970s Canadian television game show called Definition; Myers is known for inserting references to his native Canada into his films, and the use of the "Definition" theme is considered one of these references (the Dream Warriors recording also makes this connection).
• Austin's glasses are usually meant to be a reference to the glasses Michael Caine wore in The IPCRESS File. When Caine was cast as Austin Powers' father, Nigel, in Austin Powers in Goldmember, he actually wore the original pair of Harry Palmer glasses.
• Throughout the trilogy, Austin's pad changes repeatedly. Also, when he returns to it by travelling back in time, there is always a party in progress despite his absence.
• In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted the Austin Powers movies (collectively) the 12th greatest comedy film of all time.
• There has been some criticism for the excessive amount of product placement in the film. For example, the film depicts an exterior pad with the name Virgin Atlantic emblazoned on it.
• The classic origin and childhood speech by Dr. Evil at the therapy center ("...My mother was a French prostitute named Chloe..") was a take-off on Dr. No's similar dinner speech in front of Bond and Honey Ryder.
• The reference in Dr. Evil's speech to his father's "inventing the question mark" may refer to the original 007 film credit for the unseen Blofeld character as a question mark.
• In a deleted scene in Goldmember, it suggests that Austin got his "sexy bitch" and "yeah baby yeah" sayings when he was a teenager at the academy and he heard two friends say "Jason and Nathan are sexy bitches! yeah baby yeah!".

Recurring Jokes

• Austin (only in the first movie) and Dr. Evil being unaware of the changes that occurred in the years they were frozen.
• Objects shaped like private parts (a key, a space ship, a satellite, a penis, Austin's chest hair etc.)
• Girls with sexually suggestive names.
• Austin constantly denying the ownership of his enlarger pump.
• Dr. Evil's (and in a Goldmember deleted scene, Scott's) chair spinning out of control making the sitter sick.
• Number 2 being in love with his past self (deleted scenes only).
• Mustafa never dying despite his injuries.
• Suggestive Shadow Scenes (Second and Third Movies)

References

• USA Today discusses parallel with Pussy Galore
• Slang City(online) discusses parallel with Pussy Galore
• The spy who came in from the cold, by Barbara Lester
• Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, Chicago Sun Times, By Roger Ebert May 2, 1997

Video games

• Austin Powers: Oh, Behave! (Game Boy Color)
• Austin Powers: Welcome to My Underground Lair! (Game Boy Color)
• Austin Powers in Operation Trivia (PC and Macintosh)
• Austin Powers Pinball (PlayStation)

Other Games

• 'Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me Collectible Card Game by Decipher Inc