11 Awful Opening Scenes In Otherwise Awesome Movies

5. Vanessa Gets Written Out - Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

The Movie: Here's one comedy sequel that really works: the follow-up to Mike Myers' 1997 spy spoof served up an affectionate Moonraker parody, introducing iconic new characters such as Fat B*stard and Mini-Me, ensuring it was a rare second movie that was just as funny as the first. That 51% on Rotten Tomatoes sure is fishy...

The Scene: After Dr. Evil (Myers) is shown returning to Earth, the scene shifts to Austin (Myers), who is enjoying his honeymoon with new bride Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley). After some coitus, Vanessa repeats the same dialogue twice, and when Austin uses the TV remote, it also operates Vanessa, revealing that she is, in fact, a fembot. After Austin rips "her" human face off to reveal the robotics underneath, Dr. Evil plays a recorded message for him mere seconds before the fembot self-destructs. Austin mourns Vanessa for a few moments before realising that he's single again, and the film's raunchy credits sequences kicks in.

Why It Sucks: Because the first movie spent so much screen time investing audiences in Austin and Vanessa's relationship, and then for it to be ditched in the second film's first five minutes (reportedly because scheduling conflicts prevented Hurley from having her originally planned role) felt pretty lazy. On one hand, it's almost admirable how ridiculously Vanessa is taken out of the frame, and how hilariously fast Austin gets over it, but just because the film is self-aware about how deep of a whole they dug themselves, it doesn't mean the scene totally works.

If Hurley was unable to return, then it was always going to be a tough one, and in fairness, at least she was able to film this scene rather than nothing at all. Even so, it's pretty eye-rolling stuff, though thankfully very brief and easy enough to move on from. Heather Graham is no substitute, sadly.