69. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) - Jay Roach

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) - Jay RoachA 1960's hipster secret agent is brought out of cryofreeze to oppose his greatest enemy into the 1990's where his social attitudes are glaringly out of place First off, no Austin Powers is not a better movie than Halloween or Vertigo. It's not in the same league as those movies. If I was doing a list of the Best 100 movies then Vertigo would probably be in the Top 10... this list is what I consider to be my favourites. Austin Powers is such a fun movie. Like I mentioned with The Dreamers, I love movies that celebrate movies and Austin Powers certainly does that. Austin Powers celebrates the great 60's James Bond movies and parodies (but at the same giving homage to) all the things that you wonder about when watching movies from that franchise. Like.... why does EVERY woman that Bond meets want to sleep with him almost straight away? Why do the villains come up with these outrageous ways of killing Bond with lasers or sharks and then leave the room just expecting Bond to die, rather than blowing his brains out with a shotgun! Why is it that the villain wants to take over the world when they usually have a good scheme of business going that is used as the cover up to their evil plans? All these things are ridiculous in anything other than James Bond, but it just works in his universe. They are outrageous and over the top but it's so fun. Nearly every frame and scene of Austin Powers is a homage or a parody of a scene in a James Bond movie. The more you are aware of Bond and the familar you are with those movies, the funnier and more enjoyable Austin Powers is. It's not a piss take of Bond, it's a celebration of it...otherwise why would so many James Bond fans love the movie? Dr. Evil who is obviously a take on Donald Pleasence's fantastic performance as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice embodies all the things that are great about Bond villains. Robert Wagner as Number Two might be my favourite character in the whole movie, he is the one who has taken the corporation into the 21st century but is kept down by Dr. Evil's obsession to take over the world! Mike Myers as Austin Powers is just comedy gold. Austin Powers is one of my guilty pleasure movies and I could probably tell you the whole script line for line I've seen it so many times. Yes I'm not really a fan of the campness and mindless comedy that the franchise became by the third movie (although there is a few single moments in the second and third which are great) but this first movie is one that I will return to regulary and have fun picking out all the references to movies past.