Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0, DTS 6.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: $26.98
Extras:
Infinifilm Fact Tracks, 4 Documentaries, Audio Commentary, World
of Austin Powers, Visual FX Segment, Deleted/ Alternate Scenes, 4 Music
Videos, Theatrical and Teaser Trailers.
Director:
Jay Roach
Screenplay:
Mike Myers and Michael McCullers
Cast:
Austin Powers/Dr. Evil/Goldmember/Fat Bastard: Mike Myers
Foxxy Cleopatra: Beyonce Knowles
Nigel Powers: Michael Caine
Basil: Michael York
No. 2: Robert Wagner
Scottie: Seth Green
Frau: Mindy Sterling
What is it? Year of the terrible sequels?
With the exception of
Harry Potter
and Lord of the Rings I'd say sequels have really taken a nose
dive in quality this year. They weren't meant to be masterpieces or
anything but anymore these are just rehashes.
MIB II
is the king of rehashes but this new Austin Powers flick hinges on some of the
worst rehashes in cinematic history.
I'm not even sure what the plot was. Something about Goldmember trying
to flood the world with a satelite named Preparation H with help from
Dr. Evil. Then there's the whole father subplot and blah blah. It's
really just a bunch of skits thrown in around a paper thin plot (hmm
sounds like 'Die Another Day' all over again). The structure has almost
no balance to the plot or what you could call it and you can really tell
the series is running out of steam.
It almost seems as if everyone involved is in on the joke and you're
not. Since so many scenes from Austin 2 are here they have to make it
blatantly clear (the groan-inducing Osbournes cameo) that it becomes
obvious of the inevitable. The genitalia jokes get old, REAL quick. I
could ramble on and on but you'd fall asleep. The first film was good
because they were just making a fun movie, the second was better because
they got to do what they couldn't before, but this time they know it's
going to be a hit so you can throw the story out the window. It was a
still a huge hit by the way.
Despite the terrible movie New Line has again proved they know how to
transfer films to DVD. Presented in a crystal clear anamorphic 2.35:1
widescreen picture. Blacks are solid, colors are sharp, fleshtones are
accurate. Everything is perfect. I noticed no pixelization but minimal
edge enhancement.
Audio is presented in three flavors. Dolby 5.1, 2.0, and DTS 6.1.
Obviously the DTS track shows much more ambience than the others and
proves to be the best of the bunch. The track doesn't really pick up
until the music segments which show much bass. Overall pretty good.
New Line's Infinifilm DVDs are great but the extras provided on them are
sometimes less than stellar and this is one of those cases.
Audio Commentary:
A decent track featuring Mike Myers and Jay Roach.
Suprising how serious Mike Myers can be.
Beyond the Movie:
Houses "MI-6: International Man of Mystery" which
explains about the real British Intelligence and the comparisons to
James Bond. "English, English" features the origin of the gibberish
language Austin and his father use in the film. "Disco Fever" shows how
deep production went to capture the disco feel. "Fashion vs. Ficition"
looks at the costume design in the film. All are extemely short with the
MI-6 featurette being the longest at 4 minutes. All are animorphic
1.85:1.
Deleted Scenes:
15 in all, anamorphic 2.35:1. optinal commentary. 22
minutes long. Few are extended. Some come off as mildly funny but none
make the movie any better.
The World of Austin Powers:
Several short featurettes with some
branching vignettes. Put together they run 36 minutes. Most discuss
character development and other aspects of the filmmaking process that
somehow made the mess tha this film is.
Visual Effects:
Worthless test footage shot of the F/X car that runs 8 seconds.
4 Music Videos:
"Work it Out" by Beyonce Knowles, "Boys" by Britney
Spears, "Daddy Wasn't There" by Ming Tea, "Hard Knock Life" by Dr. Evil
and Mini-Me. I just realized how much I hate music videos.
Trailers:
Four teasers an the theatrical trailer. Teasers are
anamorphic 1.85:1 while the theatrical is anamorphic 2.35:1.
It isn't New Line's fault the extras are lacklustre as I'm sure they
found everything they could. Maybe it's the movie's fault, huh? But the
Infinifilm track saves it from the average 2.5.
Packaging is amaray with the poster being used as the cover, the
Infinifilm banner rests on top, and the box it outlined in baby blue.
There are 17 regular chapters while activating Infinifilm gives you a
whopping 61. Menus are animated most of the time with some being static.
Overall, this film bores almost on a level I didn't think existed. The
DVD is the only good part about the whole expierience. If you like
watching the same thing you've seen before then knock yourself out, all
others be warned of the turkey.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
