Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery - 10th Anniversary Edition
Preview by Jack Foley
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: New and exclusive featurette: Austin Powers: A Shaggadelic Decade (17 mins); New and exclusive Interactive Quiz; Commentary with Mike Myers and Director Jay Roach; Deleted Scenes; 2 Alternate Endings; Cameo Menu; Spy Film Retrospective; Cast Biogs.
AUSTIN ‘Danger’ Powers is a 60s hipster secret agent masquerading as a fashion photographer whilst enjoying all that swinging London has to offer.
Having failed to assassinate Powers yet again, arch nemesis Dr Evil has himself cryogenically frozen (along with his cat Mr Bigglesworth) and sent into orbit so that he can return at a later date to freely terrorize the planet. Dedicated to the last, Austin follows suit.
That later date transpires to be 1997. So, when Dr Evil reappears on the scene British Intelligence thaws the only agent they have capable of thwarting Evil’s nefarious plans to hold the world to ransom for 1 million dollars…
But a lot has changed in the intervening years, so how will Austin cope with a world where people are no longer having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment? Will he still be sound as a pound?
Snapshot verdict: This is the first and arguably best of the Austin Powers series and a downright hilarious send-up of James Bond and 1960s shtick.
Mike Myers gets his references spot-on, the gags fly thick and fast and in Dr Evil, audiences have one of the greatest comic fiends of all time! Oh, and Liz Hurley even shines – which is really saying something.
If you haven’t had chance to own Austin Powers on DVD, this 10th anniversary box set certainly provides a nice entry point, especially since there’s bound to be special edition box sets of the subsequent sequels. And we can only say “yeah baby” to that!