Parody falls flat in 'Austin Powers'

By Laksmi Pamuntjak-Djohan

JAKARTA (JP): Watching a 1960s relic oversell bawdy humor may not be as edifying as, uuh, two hours of Marvin's Room. But the sheer outlandishness of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery may just redefine escapism for the moment.

One look at the spectacles, moptop wig, electric outfits and stained buck teeth as Austin Powers hems and haws his way through the campy introduction will tell you that this film is exactly what it is: a wacky spy spoofery designed to milk a lot of heh- heh-hehs from the audience even if they strain themselves hard not to. And laugh they did, hard.

Not that the market is not already saturated. There is the goofball Naked Gun franchise, the Derek Flint movies, and that indulgent Bond satire Casino Royale with an A-List cast that includes David Niven, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles. Add the various TV send-ups and you practically have a whole genre of its own.

Yet writer-director Myers (Wayne's World) has an edge, or so he thinks: his latest flick is a retro shot at a psychedelic target. "Smashing, baby, yeah!" you can almost hear him holler.

But parody has become so pastiche that unless it is excellent it'll fall flat on its face, as Austin Powers does 10 minutes past the introduction. Just like the Austin Powers he portrays, former Saturday Night Live comic Myers thinks he's ultra hip, even as he declares "there's nothing so pathetic as an aging hipster" while flashing his Sean Connery-like hairy chest at us. Few could sum it up better.

The movie opens in 1967. Britain's libidinous secret agent Austin Powers (Myers) is shown battling his nemesis, Dr. Evil (Myers again, in a double role) with his judo-chopping, Emma Peel-like sidekick, Mrs. Kensington (Mimi Rogers). When Dr. Evil escapes Powers by freezing himself in a cyrochamber, Powers follows suit. Thirty years later, both are defrosted and the battle is renewed. Powers also gets a bonus: a sexy new sidekick, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley).

From thereon, the formula is pure Saturday Night Live, with a patchwork of extended sketches that overstay their welcome not a little bit, but A LOT. Long after the audience has stopped laughing, Powers is still there with his coy stabs at repartee. And while Hurley gets the chance to look every inch her gorgeous Estee Lauder persona, Powers gets to seduce her at every opportunity. Stopping Dr. Evil from dominating the world seems a mere afterthought, much like it was when happy-go-lucky Roger Moore was Bond in the official Bond series.

While most screwball comedies have an incredible knack for explaining themselves, a certain familiarity with the James Bond franchise certainly helps. The fleeting visit through dear old Q's territory -- the gizmo section of the Ministry of Defense - seems almost mandatory, although in this case the subject of parody clearly has the comic upperhand. Dr. Evil's Japanese henchman, Random Task, is a carbon copy of Oddjob in Goldfinger. The surprise bit when he suddenly pounces on the blissfully cavorting couple is also lifted directly from the famous Britt Ekland-Roger Moore bedroom scene in The Man with the Golden Gun (the villain was Nick Nack, played by the diminutive Herve Villechaize).

The only woman in Dr. Evil's staff is a dead-ringer for the robotic Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in From Russia with Love. Meanwhile, Austin Powers' sleazeball vulgarity is no match for Dr. Evil's multi-dimensional charms. A direct send-up of Donald Pleasance's memorable Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, this tragic-funny-sad role best facilitates Myers' comic talent.

Certain scenes also bring us back to more recent cinematic moments in Golden Eye when Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) locks her deadly thighs around an unsuspecting Bond (Pierce Brosnan), or when the first female M in Bond history (Judi Densch) suddenly lapses into a soppy moment by whispering "Be careful" to Bond (Brosnan).

Hollywood's period transposition formula may be a tad cliched these days, but the comic possibilities are indeed enormous. Among the film's funniest moments is when Dr. Evil spells out his naive plan to hold the world ransom for a paltry US$1 million.

The father-son banter between Dr. Evil and his defiant test-tube son, Scott (Seth Green) also has its moments, especially during a group therapy session headed by a very New Age Carrie Fisher in a cameo role. You can tell it's not just generational gap.

Indeed, as hero and villain "acclimatize to the 90s" (as Vanessa puts it so aptly), the concept of Change is overwhelming at best. Many things have changed since they were frozen in time, not the least of which are the end of the Cold War, multinational corporations, artificial insemination and...a completely new attitude towards sex.

"Shall we shag now or shall we shag later, baby?" Powers revels in his outdated lingo, while Vanessa grimaces in disgust. "Did you wear a condom, Austin?" is her pointed inquiry when Powers returns from a steamy night with Alotta Fagina (Fabiana Udenio), a sexpot modeled after Honor Blackman's saucily-named Pussy Galore in Goldfinger.

But, it isn't as if the official Bond series hasn't acknowledged the Sexual Revolution. So frightened was Hollywood of AIDS 10 years ago that The Living Daylights adopted the "strictly-one-woman" policy for an uptight Timothy Dalton.

To a certain extent Myers seems to recognize this, but he's too preoccupied with sight gags, sexual puns and detailed kitsch of the swinging 1960s. Not that it really matters. In fact, Cynthia Charette's production design deserves special mention for recreating that 1960s psychedelic look. Not to mention the soundtrack -- John Barry's 007 scores, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach. The cameos are also energizing to say the least.

Only just, however. As in Saturday Night Life, Austin Powers suffers from Myers' inability to know when to draw the line. Sexual jokes have their appeal, but when overstretched, they easily descend into bad taste. The first time Powers and Vanessa wickedly veil their private parts with various "fig leaves", it is funny. The second time it is plain boring.