Monday, July 16, 2012

I Love the 90's - Austin Powers

Handbags and Handguns

I've been meaning to do more than just 90's music for John's World's "I Love the 90's" month, and I think it's about time that I did.  This morning I included a bonus clip with today's Song of the Day from one of my favorite all-time movies, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, featuring the inimitable Dr. Evil singing his own hilarious version of today's song, and thus the inspiration for this trip down Nineties Memory Lane.


Introduction


"Spy" was the second in a series of three Austin Powers movies: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and Goldmember (2002), and the whole thing was the brainchild of one Mike Myers, who was a longtime cast member of Saturday Night Live, among other things.  Myers had been a big fan of the old James Bond movies and the Austin Powers series is one giant spoof on those famous spy films of the sixties.

The Austin Powers movies are full of sexual innuendo and outrageous humor, with lots of memorable one-liners that fans of the series still love to use once in awhile: 

               comic coverage
                                                                     explow


Here are a couple of quote clips that always make me giggle.  Click "play"...they're short and funny.




The Cast of Characters

The cast of characters throughout the three movies got better and better as the series went along.  Several characters, including Austin himself, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard and Goldmember of them were played by Myers himself.  



it pays to entertain

One of my favorite characters was Frau Farbissina (played by Mindy Sterling), Dr. Evil's assistant and one-time lover:

        Love it!

And the product of that "love" was the young, neglected, reluctant to be future leader of the world and very critical Scott, played by Seth Green.  And then there was Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), a miniature, cloned version of the bad doctor who wins over his love, much to Scott's dismay.



The rest of the characters include some big-name talent in some very comical roles:

Michael York - Basil Exposition
Robert Wagner - Number Two
Rob Lowe - A younger Number Two
Fred Savage - Number Three (Moley, hehe!)
Michael Cane - Nigel Powers
Will Ferrell - Mustafa
Kristen Johnston - Ivana Humpalot

The Powers Girls


And each of the three movies had a different Powers' Girl, the first being Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), who turned out to be a fembot.  Then there was model Heather Graham as Felicity Shagwell in the second, and Beyonce Knowles plays Foxy Cleopatra in Goldmember.

Vanessa, Felicity and Foxy......

The Music

Of course, with any movie there's gotta be music, and the second film produced a Grammy-winning song by Madonna.  "Beautiful Stranger" featured Austin himself cavorting with Madge in what is still one of the singer's best-loved tunes.  Other tunes were covered in the film series, such as the One of Us version by Dr. Evil.  Other memorable song covers include Dr. Evil and Mini Me on "Just the Two of Us" and "Hard Knock Life," but my favorite is this one from the first movie.  As Frau would say, "BRING IN THE FEMBOTS!!!"


Anyway, I hope I didn't leave anything out!  There's really just too much to cover...ya just gotta see the movies to appreciate them.  You can buy them all at a low price at Amazon below.  In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down Nineties Memory Lane.  If you love the Austin Powers series, I'd love to hear some of your favorite moments.  As always, thanks for checking me out...

 


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