I could hardly wait to go to the Toronto premiere of Austin Powers, being the obsessed fan that I was; yet a few months before I was to go to the premiere I had developed a contradicting prediction for the fate of the Austin Powers Trilogy: what if it was...well bad?
I mean, so far Mike has never let me down, but as I recall there was that whole Deiter scandal, it was cancelled because the script was just an orchestra of repetitive, old tag lines. What if AP3 was the same? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Austin, Dr Evil, and even Fat Bastard (not literally) but a movie consisting of just the endless "Yeah baby's", "Zip it" and "Get in ma belly!" wouldn't cut it for me. Characters need to grow and change: and do they ever in Goldmember.
Austin Powers in my "movie-critic perspective" is a hit or miss with people. You like it, you don't like it: that's all there is too it. And, if you liked the first two, you will love the third. I would not change a thing, this movie has everything: dancing a singing (but not too much so that it gets overused and boring), brand new tag lines (eg. Moley moley! Hee hee!), and boy the ending is a real shocker! Run don't walk to the theatre, this movie is gonna be king of the box office. I mean, c'mon its either AP3, or the 'Country Bears' with that overacting kid from the sixth sense in the lead part. So far, Austin Powers is overlooking the competition, (at least for me anyway).
As for Beyonce? At first, her over exaggerated dialogue (eg. What's kickin' Basil suga?) had me raising an eyebrow, but then I realized this movie isn't gonna win any Academy Awards (copyright?) so, I let loose and actually thought she did a great job for her first movie ever! She was very awesome.
As I was saying earlier, even for those people who weren't so fond of the repetitive schtick in AP2, Goldmember really lengthens the whole bond between the characters: allowing them to grow and to change. The third instalment, believe it or not, is a lot more story driven than character driven, (even though the great is playing four characters.)
Speaking of characters, I have forgotten all about the newest edition to the Austin Powers movies: Goldmember. At first, he really creeped me out (the makeup is absolutely incredible), with his thinning platinum hair, flaking skin, and freckles, but every time I heard his Dutch drawl, I was in stitches. Again, Goldmember will be a hit or miss with audiences. However, this movie really handles its comedic timing perfectly: whenever a line seems a bit out of place, another character jumps right in there to save it.
Also, the movie isn't one big endless piece of "schtick", they give you rests for you to kind of take in the plot.
I could go on and on, but I will let you see it for yourself.
Yeah baby!
Spencer from Toronto