I�m sure nobody will, but don�t go to see Austin Powers in Goldmember if you want to watch slick action, and intelligent plotlines and fashion advice. Unfortunately, you also won�t get an abundance of well-paced comedy, exceptional performances or clever repartee either. What you will get is a lot of amusing (in a puerile sense) snippets - the Japanese twins Fook Mi and Fook Yu come to mind! Fortunately, I have a rather puerile side to my sense of humour, so I was quite happy to giggle away every now and then.
But, let�s face it, you don�t go and see an Austin Powers movie for any other reason than to regress to your early teens � or do you? You could spend hours analysing the merits and de-merits of the film if you�re really tight about what you spend your hard-earned wonga on. If so, you�d have to comment on the sometimes laborious dialogue which spends far longer looking for the joke than the laughter which results, or the stilted performance given by Caine as Austin�s father, who often looked very uncomfortable in the genre - and quite understandably at times - and some of the comic devices would feel perfectly at home in the Beano.
It would seem that Myers has hit a bit of a dilemma with Goldmember. It has obviously been written and directed to try and fulfil the �12� certificate for as wide an audience as possible, but as a result he has restricted himself at both ends of the scale � he has felt the need to put in very lowbrow humour for the 12 year olds (like he had to think about it!), but also hasn�t been able to go too adult at other end, and so the whole thing lacks quick-wittedness, which possibly explains its success in the States.
I have one more quibble - Why doesn�t Mini Me talk? It�s never been explained, and call me pernickety if you will, but his mini-mime and small-scale signalling really began to get my back up after a while. Maybe he is meant to be Dr. No � vocal chords (one for Alan Partridge fans!)
Goldmember is a bit like pouring warm custard all over your naked body � it makes you feel funny inside, but you have to go with the flow (maybe it�s just me, then!). However, I really don�t know how much room there is for yet another sequel. Time to break out the Ambrosia. |
