My Review of "Austin Power: International Man of Mystery"

Austin Power: International Man of Mystery came out back in 1997. It's funny because they reference the year a lot so you won't forget this fact. I remember loving this movie when it first came out. There was a time when I had this movie on repeat because I loved it so much. It was new, wacky and I was oh so naïve. I was curious if this movie would pass the test of time if I rewatched it today.

The movie starts off with the mysterious and sinister Dr. Evil. He's punishing his minions back in 1967 for failing in his attempts to rule the world. Basically he's on the run now that Austin Powers has the upper hand.

Next we get introduced to Austin Powers and he's pretty much a very famous super hero in England. We have tons of women adorning him and chasing him like he's a pop star. It's to set the mood as to what his character is and his significance at the time.

With his confidence level to one thousand, Austin chases Dr. Evil but fails to do so. Dr. Evil escapes into space cryogenically frozen to threaten the world again in the future. That is 30 years into the future when his Big Boy space ship finally comes back to Earth.

When news of this finally arrives, Austin Powers is brought back from his own cryogenically frozen state to thwart Dr. Evil's plans. It's a very basic story but it's fun because of the fish out of water situation. Austin is no longer in the same social climate that he once was in the 1960s. A lot of things have changed and many of them are pretty comedic.

Although I have nostalgic memories of this movie I did see this movie in a new light after seeing it again. A lot of the fun and the jokes that they did in this movie have been replicated and duplicated many times over the past few decades. Knowing this the magic kind of wore off a little. Some of the stuff felt like it was played out because I've seen it so many times. Still I have to remember that this was the one that started it for me.

For the most the whole cast does a great job in giving life to all of the characters in this movie. They keep us interested in what's going on and keep the movie flowing but again some of the jokes just don't hit now.

What saves this movie still is the Dr. Evil character. His relationship with Scott and his hilarious antics are really what saves this movie from being unentertaining. It's odd as we have a lot more fun with the villains than we do with the heroes of the movie.

There are also a few politically insensitive things in this movie that were played out for laughs back in the day that wouldn't work today. Then again there are a few politically incorrect things that they did that still work in this movie as we know the context of the jokes. In this movie there is a lot of jokes playing upon Indian culture. I think it may stem from England's relationship with India.

I think there are a lot of references in this movie that won't translate well with a lot of newer viewers as well. Heck some of the references flew over my head as I was too young to know some of the 60s references they were making in the 90s. Now that we're decades later it seems like it'll be even tougher for newer viewers to understand this movie.

Overall, this movie surprisingly didn't translate as well this time around than I thought it would. I still had some laughs and some fun but it I don't think this would be universal nowadays. Generations watching it now might find this movie a bit awkward and irrelevant. Those that are watching it from my generation might still be able to enjoy it. Though not as much as we enjoyed it back in the day. That's why I have to give this movie an unfortunate 6.5 out of 10. I was really hoping for better but I can't say this passed the test of time.