Austin Powers 2

Return of the
'Swining Spy'

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the sequel to the hit Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, was a huge success in the US. The film hits the Indian screens this week, albeit with the Censors’ scissors snipping away most of the “objectionable” double-entendre scenes, and the also the title, making it Austin Powers 2...

Austin Powers was conceived as a spoof for James Bond, and this funny spy proved to be as popular as Bond in the first film Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery. That spurred its makers to make a sequel, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, which will be released in India as Austin Powers 2.

In the sequel, Austin Powers, a swinging photographer by day, and the International Man of Mystery by night, is honeymooning with his smash-looking wife Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley), when he discovers a shocking surprise. The discovery, which also results in Powers reverting back to his single status, is this - his arch enemy Dr. Evil is back on Earth from space, and is plotting a new scheme to end the world, and as an initial part of his scheme, Dr. Evil steals Powers’ priced ‘mojo’ (the secret behind his libido), and escapes in his new time machine to the year 1969. The powerless Powers must travel to the Swinging Sixties, track down his ‘mojo’, and foil Dr. Evil’s destructive plan. To aid him in this endeavour is a unique time-machine developed by the British intelligence - a psychedelic Volkswagen Beetle - and a chick, CIA spy Felicity (Heather Graham), who also becomes a motivation for restoring his libido.

Mike Myers, who plays the outrageous spy Austin Powers, and also Dr. Evil and his henchman Fat Bastard, writes (alongwith Michael McCullers) and produces this sequel presented by New Line Cinema. Myers, who reprises the comic roles he played in the original film (which became a cult film), is joined by Heather Graham and Rob Lowe, besides Elizabeth Hurley and Robert Wagner who team up with him again, after acting in the original film. Director Jay Roach helms the sequel, after directing the original.

The idea for Austin Powers took root in Myers’ mind, who was raised in Canada by English parents. So he grew up with “all things English, James Bond as well as Peter Sellers.” And in his cult film he mixed both these influences into a character which is the embodiment of “sauve silliness.” Says Myers, “I loved that era when everything was made sexy, everything was eroticised. You couldn’t have a kettle, you had to have a ‘sexy’ kettle. You couldn’t just be a flight attendant, you had to be ‘sexy’ steward. Then one day, in 1978, it all just stopped, but not for Austin Powers.”

In his first avataar, Austin Powers was shown entering the 90s armed with the 60s’ trends - groovy lingo, hip-dislocating dances, judo chops, and the likes. For the sequel, Myers decided to do the reverse - bring Austin Powers back to the “free-love 60s, but with his newly acquired 90s sensibilities intact.” Explains Myers, “You can take the boy out of the 60s, but you can’t take the 60s out of the boy. Having spent so much time in the 90s, it turns out he may have lost a bit of confidence with the ladies. And that’s dangerously close to being square.”

Director Roach, who again gives his distinctive comic touch to the sequel, looks at Powers’ predicament philosophically. Says he, “By living in the 90s, Austin has lost touch with what it really means to be Austin Powers. The physical representation of that is that he’s lost his ‘mojo’, the mysterious soource of his sexual prowess, his romantic soul, his savoir faire, his joie de vivre. So he has to go back to the 60s, returning to his lost essence by returning to the era where his spiritual home still lies. What is clear is: what Austin is really looking for, whether he’s in the 60s or the 90s, is not his ‘mojo’, but love.”

Dr. Evil, Powers’ arch rival, played by Myers again, is a perfect foil to the spy. Square and greedy, the villain returns in the sequel with a “far more fiendishly ingenious and sublimely ridiculous doomsday scheme.” Over-sized lasers, under-sized clones and a “mojo-in-a-bottle” are the accessories he uses to help in his plot. Dr. Evil’s origins too lie in the cinema of the 60s. Myers informs that while etching Evil’s character, he was inspired by such “diabolical villains as Bond’s Blofeld, and by the hare-brained henchman in the Matt Helm and Flint series.” Evil is funny because he is among those villains who never checks to see if the good guys were killed.

Among Evil’s new henchmen is Fat Bastard, played yet again by Myers. He is the flatulent, Scottish spy who steals Powers’ ‘mojo’. The elaborate latex suit and make-up effects for Fat Bastard were designed by Oscar-award winner special effects master, Stan Winston. It would take Myers five hours every day to get into the “claustrophobic” suit, to make him appear with a waistline of over 70 inches and a weight close to 500 pounds. But Myers feels the trouble was worth it, because of the atrocious appearance it gives to the character.

The character of Austin Powers will surely go down in history. His appeal, according to director Roach, is in the fact that here is a guy, who has managed to maintain tremendous incompetence in the face of having attained legendary super-spy status. “No matter how much he bungles the mission up, he’s still the best man for the job,” says Roach and asks, “Who else is like that? Who else has his style? When you are looking at all these normal-looking 90s films, and then all the 60s films, and then you see Austin Powers, it’s neither. It’s something unusual and wierd, and different, but connected to them both.” And that’s why the ‘Swinging Spy’ and his messy adventures are looked forward to.