Not as funny as the first two in the series, Austin Powers in Goldmember still has a lot of funny scenes that make the movie wonderful entertainment.

Dr. Evil teams up with Goldmember to create and utilize a tractor beam to bring a large asteroid crashing to the Earth's polar ice caps and flood the planet. Austin Powers, teaming up with Foxy Cleopatra try to stop the evil duo and at the same time, save Austin's father Nigel from the clutches of Goldmember. Scott Evil tries to do everything he can to get his father's love, and succeeds, pushing Mini-Me over to the good side. The story takes place both in present day and in the 70's and features cameos from the likes of Britney Spears, Quincy Jones and an opening sequence that I won't reveal here, but needs to be seen. Secrets are revealed towards the end of the movie, and another sequel is set up. Considering the opening weekend grosses of the film series keeps going up exponentially, there will definitely be another movie soon enough.

On the whole I didn't find Goldmember to be as funny as the previous two films. A lot of the gags were being run through for the third time, and while they needed to be there, it still felt old and stiff. There was a lot more emphasis on low-brow toilet humor, especially when it came to Fat Bastard. Some of it was funny, some of it was just plain nasty. The scenes dealing with The Mole were overplayed and not all that funny for a gag that ran throughout the movie. And I didn't find the Goldmember character all that compelling either. He just had a strange accent and enjoyed eating his own skin.

That being said, there were still scenes that had me crying because they were so funny. Towards the end of the film there's a scene with Austin and his new mini-Austin behind a white sheet that had me rolling. That scene itself is worth the price of admission. The laughs came mostly from Mike Myers and his facial expressions. His ability to play four distinct characters is incredible, and he manages to get laughs out of all of them. It's the Dr. Evil character that gets the most laughs, and at some point, there should be a Dr. Evil spin-off movie where he's the focal point and not Austin. I also loved seeing the flashback sequences to young Austin and Dr. Evil. Beyoncé holds her own in her first feature film role as Foxy Cleopatra. She gets to say 'jive turkey' a few times and wears clothes that become more and more revealing as the movie progresses. The rest of the cast has to settle for being in the background as Myers is front and center in every scene, sometimes twice (like in the Silence of the Lambs take-off). I thought they could have used the secondary characters a bit more so Myers wouldn't have to be in control the entire time. And the ending, while not totally surprising, leaves me wondering where the next film is going to head.

So overall, I would recommend Austin Powers in Goldmember. It lacked the freshness of the previous two movies, but that's to be expected. It had some amazingly funny scenes, and some scenes that fell flat, but in the end, it's worth seeing.

Got something to say? Say it on the Message Boards. No password needed!