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Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

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Austin Powers:
The Spy Who Shagged Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJay Roach
Screenplay byMike Myers
Michael McCullers
Produced byJan Blenkin
John S. Lyons
Eric McLeod
Demi Moore
Mike Myers
StarringMike Myers
Heather Graham
Michael York
Robert Wagner
Seth Green
Mindy Sterling
Rob Lowe
Elizabeth Hurley
CinematographyUeli Steiger
Edited byDebra Neil-Fisher
Jon Poll
Music byGeorge S. Clinton
Production
companies
Eric's Boy
Moving Pictures
Team Todd
Distributed byNew Line Cinema1
Release dates
  • June 8, 1999 (1999-06-08) (United States, limited)
  • June 11, 1999 (1999-06-11) (United States, nationwide)
  • July 30, 1999 (1999-07-30) (United Kingdom)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
German
Budget$33 million[1]
Box office$312 million

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is a 1999 spy action comedy film and the second film in the Austin Powers series. It is preceded by the original film, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and followed by Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). The film was directed by Jay Roach, co-written by Mike Myers and screenwriter Michael McCullers,[2] 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 The Pink Panther Strikes Again and the other James Bond films, Diamonds Are Forever (laser gun plot), You Only Live Twice (secret volcano base), Moonraker (outer space), The Man with the Golden Gun (Mini-Me based on character Nick Nack) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (opening sequence in which it turns out that Vanessa Kensington was a fembot).

The film grossed around $312 million in worldwide ticket sales, taking more money during its opening weekend than the entire box office proceeds of its predecessor. It was nominated at the 72nd Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Makeup (Michèle Burke and Mike Smithson).[3]

Plot

Austin Powers is enjoying his honeymoon with his wife, the former Vanessa Kensington. She turns out to be one of Dr. Evil's fembots, who attempts to kill Austin, then self-destructs. Austin grieves briefly, then proceeds to the hotel lobby nude and celebrates being single again.

A NATO monitoring facility observes the return of Dr. Evil, confronting his son Scott, and then starting a riot, on The Jerry Springer Show, and informs British intelligence. At Dr. Evil's Seattle headquarters, Dr. Evil is presented with a one-eighth-size clone of himself whom he calls Mini-Me.

Dr. Evil unveils his latest evil plan: he has developed a time machine to go back to the 1960s and steal Austin's mojo, the source of Austin's sexual appeal. Dr. Evil and Mini-Me go back to 1969 and meet a younger Number Two and Frau Farbissina. An obese "Scottish Guard" called Fat Bastard extracts Austin's mojo from his frozen body at the Ministry of Defence Cryo Chamber. British intelligence warns Austin that one of Dr. Evil's agents is after him, and during a photo shoot the wanton Ivana Humpalot seduces him, but at the last moment she claims he is too sexy for her to kill him. They have sex in his bed, but do not get far before he discovers that he has lost his mojo and is impotent.

The MOD sends Austin back to 1969 with its own time travel device, a convertible Volkswagen New Beetle. Austin arrives at a party in his London pad and with the assistance of a CIA agent, Felicity Shagwell, escapes an assassination attempt by two of Dr. Evil's operatives. Austin and Felicity are pursued by Mustafa, another of Dr. Evil's henchmen; when caught he reveals the existence of Dr. Evil's secret volcano lair. Before he can divulge its location, Mini-Me shoots him in the neck with a dart, causing him to fall off a cliff.

After examining photographs from the crime scene at MOD headquarters, Austin identifies Fat Bastard as the perpetrator of the theft of his mojo. At Dr. Evil's lair, Fat Bastard arrives with Austin's mojo. Dr. Evil drinks some of it and has sex with Frau Farbissina. This results in an awkward situation when Frau reveals that she is pregnant. At the same moment Scott, Dr. Evil's son, arrives through the time portal. Dr. Evil announces his latest plan — to hold the world ransom by threatening to destroy major cities each hour, using a giant laser on the Moon. In London, Austin and Felicity get to know each other, but when Felicity tries to have sex with Austin, he turns her down because of his lost mojo.

Under MOD instructions to implant a homing device into Fat Bastard, Felicity seduces him, allowing her to plant it in his anus. Fat Bastard forces it out of his bowels into a Paddington Station toilet, but a stool sample from the scene is analyzed to reveal traces of a 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 guard who is overcome when Felicity exposes her breasts. 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, eventually flushing him into space. As Austin confronts Dr. Evil, Dr. Evil gives him a choice: Save the world or Felicity, who is locked in a chamber with poison gas.

Felicity tells Austin to save the world and he succeeds in doing so by kicking Frau, diverting the laser and saving Washington D.C. Felicity is killed by the poison gas. Austin chases Dr. Evil and shoots him in the leg. Before Austin can kill him, Dr. Evil tells him he could use the time machine to save Felicity and the world. Austin travels ten minutes into the past, meeting up with himself and saving both the world and Felicity. Dr. Evil initiates the self-destruct mechanism of the moon base and escapes in his rocket after throwing Austin's mojo into the air. Both Austins fail to catch it and it crashes on the floor and is destroyed. Felicity points out that all the things Austin has done show that he never lost his mojo. They escape through the time portal to 1999.

At Austin's Pad, Fat Bastard makes another attempt to assassinate Austin, but Felicity disarms him. Felicity and Austin then throw a party. Dr. Evil recovers Mini-Me from space and vows to "get" Austin. On Jerry Springer, Scott learns he was not created in a test tube, but is the love child of Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina. Austin returns to his pad, only to discover Felicity with the past Austin, who claims that since he and Austin are the same person, it is not cheating. Austin forgives Felicity.

Cast

Production

Title censorship

When the film was released, the title proved controversial in the United Kingdom, where the word shag is used to refer coarsely to sexual intercourse. Two sets of British TV adverts for the film existed, for showing before and after the 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 massage oil bottle. The post watershed adverts, aired later in the evening, gave the full title. There were also two variations of the posters; one of them asterisked out the middle of the offending word. Other posters had named the film as Austin Powers 2.[5]

Singapore briefly forced a title change to The Spy Who Shioked Me (shiok means “to feel good”).[5]

Soundtrack

Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [6]
Untitled

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 Will Smith's popular 1997 cover of the Grover Washington, Jr. classic "Just the Two of Us", referring in this case to his clone Mini-Me.

Track listing

  1. "Beautiful Stranger" - Madonna
  2. "My Generation" - The Who (live at BBC)
  3. "Draggin' the Line" - R.E.M.
  4. "American Woman" - Lenny Kravitz
  5. "Word Up!" - Melanie B (credited as Melanie G)
  6. "Just The Two Of Us (Dr. Evil Mix)" - Dr. Evil (Mike Myers)
  7. "Espionage" - Green Day
  8. "Time of the Season" - Big Blue Missile/Scott Weiland
  9. "Buggin'" - The Flaming Lips
  10. "Alright" - The Lucy Nation
  11. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" - Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello
  12. "Soul Bossa Nova (Dim's Space-A-Nova)" - Quincy Jones & His Orchestra

The soundtrack sold over 1 million copies in the USA and was certified Platinum. A second soundtrack was also released, entitled More Music From the Motion Picture.

More Music track listing "Dialogue"

  1. "Austin Meets Felicity" - Film Dialogue
  2. Mustafa's Three Question Rule - Film Dialogue

"More Music" track listing

  1. "Am I Sexy?" - Lords of Acid
  2. "I'm a Believer" - The Monkees
  3. "Magic Carpet Ride" - Steppenwolf
  4. "American Woman" - The Guess Who
  5. "Get The Girl" - The Bangles
  6. "Bachelord Pad" (FPM Edit) - Fantastic Plastic Machine
  7. "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
  8. "Crash!" - Propellerheads
  9. "Time of the Season" - The Zombies
  10. "Dr. Evil" - They Might Be Giants
  11. "The Austin Powers Shagaphonic Medley" - George S. Clinton
  12. "Beautiful Stranger" (Calderone Radio Mix) - Madonna

In addition, a score album featuring cues from both George S. Clinton scores (tracks 1-7 from the first film, track 8 an arrangement of Quincy Jones's "Soul Bossa Nova," and tracks 9-16 from the second) was released.

Chart positions

Weekly

Chart (1999) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[7] 5
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[8] 40
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[9] 5
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[10] 87
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[11] 88
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[12] 6
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[13] 30
US Billboard 200[9] 5

Year-end

Chart (1999) Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[14] 52

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [15]
See also: List of accolades received by the Austin Powers franchise

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 51%, based on 114 reviews, with the site's critical consensus reading, "Provides lots of laughs with Myers at the healm; as funny or funnier than the original."[16] On Metacritic the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17]

American Film Institute recognition:

Box office

The Spy who Shagged Me had a strong box opening at No.1[1][19]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The film's distribution rights were transferred to Warner Bros. in 2008.

References

  1. ^ a b Natale, Richard (June 14, 1999). "Feelin' Pretty Groovy: 'Austin Powers,' the Spy Who's No. 1". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
  2. ^ "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  3. ^ "Nominees & Winners for the 72nd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  4. ^ "NO JOKE ALMOST BY HERSELF, HEATHER GRAHAM TAKES AUSTIN POWERS SERIOUSLY". Chicago Tribune. June 17, 1999. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
  5. ^ a b Lundington Daily News - Jun 21, 1999
  6. ^ Boldman, Gina. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at AllMusic
  7. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Soundtrack – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  8. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Soundtrack – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Awards". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  10. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Soundtrack – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  11. ^ "Officialcharts.de – Soundtrack – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  12. ^ "Charts.nz – Soundtrack – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  13. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Soundtrack – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  14. ^ "End Of Year Charts - Top 100 Albums 1999". ARIA Charts. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  15. ^ Boldman, Gina. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at AllMusic
  16. ^ "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  17. ^ "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Metacritic. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  18. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains Nominees
  19. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (June 14, 1999). "'Austin' Sequel Is Behaving Very Well At Box Office". The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
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