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Austin Powers Revisits Mod Sixties, Baby! by Bruce Cantwell Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, regardless of its merits, was a must-see movie for me. I grew up with James Bond. Had the attaché case, the James Bond trading cards, the whole nine yards. So how could I resist Mike Myers' character Dr. Evil, a riculous homage to Donald Pleasance's Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Myers' approach is over-the-top, but then the James Bond series always flirted with self-parody during the Connery era and was played strictly for laughs in Roger Moore's first several adventures. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry tried a more deadpan approach with Get Smart. Here's the silly set-up. In 1967, Dr. Evil escapes capture by stepping into a cryogenic chamber (remember cryogenics?) and international fashion photographer/spy Austin Powers, who gets more tail than Sinatra despite unfortunate British dental work, volunteers to freeze himself as the one man who can thwart Evil in the future. Of course, when he thaws, he still has his groovy clothes, his swinging sensibility, and neolithic slang. Michael Myers knows that you can't do a Bond spoof without a Bond babe, so he got Elizabeth Hurley who reminds me of a young Jacqueline Bisset. She handles his dilapidated propositions with élan until he wears her down with Burt Bacharach performing live in their Vegas hotel room. The potty humor is peppered with visual references to You Only Live Twice, nomenclature reminiscent of Goldfinger (Fabiana Udenio plays Alotta Fagina and Joe Son is Random Task), Casino Royale is recalled with Bacharach's presence and there's even a nod to Our Man Flint through a distinctive phone ring. In 1968, Robert Wagner was something of an international man of mystery himself on It Takes a Thief. Here he is as Number Two, the corporate executive who has legitimized Dr. Evil's empire.

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