austin powers is fucking funny

[Captain Z]

Am I imagining it, or was there a scene where Austin touches the mole with a twig?

It's at the end of the clip notjosh posted.

Just went to watch this scene and was amused by the clunky insert shot at 1:07. Lots of lovely small details like that across all 3.

https://youtu.be/rc5G04nJecI?t=64

[QDRPHNC]

Ah!

[Replies From View]

Has there ever been a scene in an Austin Powers film where there is an elderly Daniel Day Lewis and he's twanging against a growing sunflower seedling with his bare glans?

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Has there ever been a scene in an Austin Powers film where there is an elderly Daniel Day Lewis and he's twanging against a growing sunflower seedling with his bare glans?

That happened in Lincoln, not Austin Powers.

[Oh, Nobody]

The first one has him frozen in 1967 and revived in 1997 right? We're just a short half decade away from the point where it's another 30 years on and he'd now be a 90s Britpop/ lounge revivalist type frozen in 1997 and awoken in the 2020s. :/

Mike Flowers, International Man Of Mystery

[dr beat]

Mike Flowers, International Man Of Mystery

HS Art thread!

[thr0b]

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a39923553/mike-myers-austin-powers-4-update/

Groovy.

[idunnosomename]

it's so fucking funny how hard he's trying in the last shot, even though it's hopeless. One of my top funny things

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The whole scene is brilliant, but the bit that really gets me is when he's looking back but drives forward by mistake.

[Replies From View]

The whole scene is brilliant, but the bit that really gets me is when he's looking back but drives forward by mistake.

Yes, it's very good.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

The whole scene is brilliant, but the bit that really gets me is when he's looking back but drives forward by mistake.

Isn't that just a lift from Annie hall?

[McChesney Duntz]

Not sure if it's worth its own thread - sadly, I don't think it is - but I started watching The Pentaverate, and, sigh. The man doesn't half love shit jokes (in both senses of the word), does he? So much money, so much effort, so many prosthetics and state-of-the-art makeup and visual jiggerypokery, all for the sake of an endless array of gags (in both senses of the word) too embarrassing to recount here. Jennifer Saunders turned up right at the point I had to bail, so I'm almost tempted to pick it back up just to see if she classes up the joint at all, but good lord, he appears to have learned nothing from the Love Guru debacle. (This seems to be another example of Netflix aiding and abetting the worst instincts of the creators they've been dangling their ridiculously large pay packets in front of [and if you extrapolate some unpleasant scrotal imagery from that statement, it's only fitting] - see also: Guest, C., Apatow, J., Chappelle, D., et fucking al ad fucking fucking nauseam - in which case, their continued decline and fall off the planet can't accelerate quickly enough.)

[prelektric]

Fish Called Wanda had a good one, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Fish Called Wanda - yes. "Oh, it's K-K-K-K-Ken coming to K-K-K-K-K-Kill me!" Horrendous treatment there of people with a stammer, but I'm sorry, it was fucking funny. One of my best mates had a stammer, etc.

(That's actually true, still in touch with him today, lovely lad, and he loves Fish Called Wanda).

As for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit!" - absolutely disgusting.

No, not really, an exceptional piece of cinema, breaking boundaries left, right and centre. Dr. Doom and the Shoe though, yikes

(What's the deal with photos around here? Where do I store them?)

[prelektric]

As far as Austin Powers goes, there is simply nothing more funny than Dr. Evil's monologue at the Father/Son therapy session. It's already been posted so I won't repeat it.

I read that last sentence in a Dr. Evil voice. Great, cheers everyone.

Actually, this is point of discussion. In that first movie, Dr.Evil is far, far more funnier than Austin himself. I remember seeing the original movie in the cinema back in 97/98 or whenever it got its lazy arse over here, but there was hardly anyone in that screening, and my brother and myself were laughing hard. And a couple of people behind us were laughing hard too.

We all thought Austin was weird, rather than funny, but Dr. Evil was special.

His spectacularly outdated plans for taking over the world were increasingly cringeworthy, being "corrected" by his No 2 time after time. That simple "Shit" was so brilliantly delivered, it practically brought the house down. Even though it was just me, my brother, and around a dozen other people, but the laughter was LOUD. A brilliant cinematic moment.

Once my parents viewed it, and when Austin was having a bit of a moment, and the Air Max type trainer was being pumped too much and exploded in Austin's face, I've never seen my Dad laugh so hard at anything before or since. I'm grateful for that.

The sequels - sigh - within seconds of watching the second one, it was clear all the chemistry and sweet nature of the first was completely out the window. Fun to watch with a packed (mostly drunk) audience, but outside of that it really is hollow. While there were some good gags in it, and performances, it just got a bit TOO self aware and taking the piss out of itself, if you get what I mean. As for Goldmember, take that and times it by 10. Ugh.

[Replies From View]

I wonder why the sequels were so broken.  Were they more mean-spirited somehow?  Different writers?

[McChesney Duntz]

Could be a very simple explanation: the first one was a labor of love (made in large part as a tribute to his late Liverpudlian dad), the second and third extensions of a franchise built to give the fans of the previous installment(s) more of the same while amping everything else up to the point of grotesquery. That there was anything worth enjoying in the second and third films is testament to his (still undeniable) talent; that the virtues of this and the projects that followed were gradually subsumed by cutesy audience-pandering and steadily increasing dollops of scatological positivism suggest something rather unfortunate and unsavory about the nature and application of that talent.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

The first film was regarded as a commercial failure when released. Yet, it was a huge hit on video, and the producers (including Demi Moore and Myers) decided to capitalize on it by making a rushed theatrical sequel.

Also, in the meantime, Myers watched The Island of Dr Moreau, and had the idea of Mini Me, which made for a couple of brilliant scenes in the first sequel.

[Thursday]

Been rewatching them this weekend and yeah the 2nd is more of a dip than I remember. Jerry Springer stuff just feels so egregious. All feels like a bit of a precursor to that thing where they were pumping out Scary Movie/Date Movie/Not Another Teen Movie and similar sorts of things where it was just a lot of recent pop culture references. Still a lot better than those obviously. 

[Noodle Lizard]

I suppose it followed the trajectory of similar spoof franchises (The Naked Gun and Airplane being the most notable ones I can think of). A lot of repeated set-ups and callbacks, less direct commentary on the thing they were initially spoofing etc. But I also like all of those sequels, for all their flaws. They're more like the cinematic equivalent of DLC, I suppose, designed as direct supplements to the original rather than films that stand up on their own merits.

I really, really don't think doing another one now would be a good idea though. 20 years it's been, Christ.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Ha-ha to the little chap hanging from girder across roof, with his tiny legs kicking in the air.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Is it funny that there is an obese Scottish man who constantly shits himself and relishes it?  I've always hated those bits.

This makes it sound much funnier than it is tbf

[Replies From View]

steadily increasing dollops of scatological positivism

Yeah that's what it's called, yeah.  Not 'shitting', at all.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I watched Goldmember last night and it was absolute bullshine. I was taken aback at how obnoxious the product placement was. At first I thought it was lampooning the Bond films product placement, but the film isn't smart enough to be doing anything like that.
There's even a bit at the end where Fat Bastard turns up at and he's lost loads of weight, and he stands there clutching a Subway sandwich (with the logo turned prominently towards the camera of course) and directly quotes the company line of "I lost weight just like Jared (nonce) by eating at Subway".

It barely even felt like a film tbh. The plot was incoherent and it was just a series of skits and references to the previous films thrown at the wall to see what stuck, like so much shit.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

iirc, the whole subplot in Goldmember about Scott Evil going full villain, and bald, to impress his father was regarded at the time as a dig at Ron Howard, as he had fought with Myers about creative control on The Cat in the Hat.

[Hillbert]

His spectacularly outdated plans for taking over the world were increasingly cringeworthy, being "corrected" by his No 2 time after time. That simple "Shit" was so brilliantly delivered, it practically brought the house down.

A similar bit was when Austin takes his son hostage and Dr Evil's response is just "Go ahead, kill the little bastard, see if I care."

[The Mollusk]

It barely even felt like a film tbh. The plot was incoherent and it was just a series of skits

Funnily enough I watched the first film tonight off the back of this thread (first time watching it in over 20 years) and this is basically my take on it. Some of it is really funny, almost entirely dependent on Myers' performances which are superb, but it's such a clunky film. The scenes just sort of haphazardly tumble from one to the next. Sometimes this is intentional, like with Dr. Evil and crew laughing at their plan until the laughter dies down and they all look a bit awkward, but a lot of the time it is actually just a scene ending after the best funny stuff has been done and you feel like the magic has worn off. Almost exactly like a lot of SNL sketches, funnily enough.

I also felt like there was a lot of attempted character building in the film that's merely toyed with with never fully realised. A solid example is Austin watching the moon landing/Berlin wall video. You feel a pang of sadness for him but literally a split second later Vanessa is sat next to him saying "good morning" and that's the end of that. It's really messy and inconsistent. You'd think a film with such a basic premise could better utilise its 90 minute runtime for the viewer to really warm to its very small number of lead characters, but it fails. There are great comedy films that take the piss out of character exposition wonderfully - This is Spinal Tap and Team America both spring to mind - where you are completely sucked into the farcical world building and despite the absurdity, the right level of tenderness or stupidity hits the mark so well. I didn't feel that with Austin Powers at all. This combined with my other point in the above paragraph left me pretty underwhelmed. Myers' charm as a performer does all the heavy lifting and it's the only thing that kept me watching.

Summary: Is it funny? Totally. Is it a "good film"? Not really.

[Captain Z]

The scenes just sort of haphazardly tumble from one to the next.

In fairness, this is often true of Bond films.

[The Mollusk]

In fairness, this is often true of Bond films.

Fair point, but I think it would be a bit of a stretch to say that this was an intentional directorial move, and if it was that still holds it back from being a brilliant comedy film. I doubt there was ever anyone in the audience stroking their chin going "ah yes! Just like Bond films! Genius!"

[Thursday]

Funnily enough I watched the first film tonight off the back of this thread (first time watching it in over 20 years) and this is basically my take on it. Some of it is really funny, almost entirely dependent on Myers' performances which are superb, but it's such a clunky film. The scenes just sort of haphazardly tumble from one to the next. Sometimes this is intentional, like with Dr. Evil and crew laughing at their plan until the laughter dies down and they all look a bit awkward, but a lot of the time it is actually just a scene ending after the best funny stuff has been done and you feel like the magic has worn off. Almost exactly like a lot of SNL sketches, funnily enough.

I also felt like there was a lot of attempted character building in the film that's merely toyed with with never fully realised. A solid example is Austin watching the moon landing/Berlin wall video. You feel a pang of sadness for him but literally a split second later Vanessa is sat next to him saying "good morning" and that's the end of that. It's really messy and inconsistent. You'd think a film with such a basic premise could better utilise its 90 minute runtime for the viewer to really warm to its very small number of lead characters, but it fails. There are great comedy films that take the piss out of character exposition wonderfully - This is Spinal Tap and Team America both spring to mind - where you are completely sucked into the farcical world building and despite the absurdity, the right level of tenderness or stupidity hits the mark so well. I didn't feel that with Austin Powers at all. This combined with my other point in the above paragraph left me pretty underwhelmed. Myers' charm as a performer does all the heavy lifting and it's the only thing that kept me watching.

Summary: Is it funny? Totally. Is it a "good film"? Not really.

Yeah I don't think it actually matters much matters of anything, but it felt very odd for instance that Vanessa is just suddenly charmed by him and they're in a relationship all of a sudden one night where she's drunk. The whole mini conflict where he sleeps with Alotta fAagina, even though they weren't in a relationship or anything feels very forced.

Again - I don't think it really matter as the film is just a vehicle for gags, but at the same time a better film can get that sort of thing right, so the plot feels more coherent without sacrificing humor.

[popcorn]

WHO DOES NUMBER 2 WORK FOR?

One of my biggest movie laughs ever, and I regularly rewatch on YouTube. The idea that you might literally ask a turd "who do you work for?!" is very pleasing to me. It doesn't make sense on any level, in the best possible way, somehow.