Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

I should confess at the outset that my love for Austin Powers' bald, Blofeldian nemesis borders on the obsessive, and it's the handful of classic Dr. Evil bits--his impromptu rap to Will Smith's remake of the Bill Withers hit "Just the Two of Us," with Mini-Me grooving ecstatically atop a piano in the background; his uncomfortable, so-how-are-things? morning-after conversation with henchwoman Frau Farbissina at the coffee machine ("it's gotten weird, hasn't it?")--that make this sloppy, shamelessly derivative sequel tolerable. For some reason, American film comedy is going through a toilet/gutter phase at present, and it's no surprise that the perpetually eager-to-please Mike Myers has hopped aboard the pottywagon; the dopey scatological humor that occasionally marred the first Austin Powers picture completely overwhelms this one, anachronistic wit abandoned in favor of Farrelly/Shadyac-style gross-outs: Austin unwittingly gulping down Fat Bastard's stool sample, etc. More damagingly, Shagged is less a sequel to the original than a pale, laborious imitation of it; either bereft of imagination or desperate to maintain the series' fan base (or both), Myers trots out virtually every gag that worked in the previous film, employing only the most negligible of variations, and the cumulative effect is numbingly monotonous. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)