Youll have high hopes for Goldmember, the third (and surely final) instalment of the Austin Powers franchise, when you its hilarious cameo-packed opening sequence. Unfortunately, with the possible sole exception of the semi-villainous Dr Evils mid-movie outburst into prison-rules hip-hop, thats about as good as it gets.
This time, the action takes us back in time to 1975, where dentists nightmare Powers (Mike Myers) has been sent on the trail of a strangely-flexible flaky-skinned Dutch supervillain by the name of Goldmember (Myers again). Goldmembers devious scheme? Who cares? Much more important is that he enjoys roller-blading, has gold-plated privates (the result of an unfortunate smelting accident) and, for any football fans out there, is the spitting image of Rangers manager Alex McLeish.
As usual, Myers keeps all the best parts for himself (in this one he plays FOUR characters Powers, Dr Evil, Goldmember and blubbery Scotsman Fat Bastard), but to its credit theres some inspired casting for the left-over roles. Michael Caine, always under-rated for his comic abilities, does a marvellous job as Austins long-lost dad, whilst booty-jiggling songstress Beyonce Knowles makes for a far better female lead than either Liz Hurley or Heather Graham before her.
But its difficult to get away from the feeling that this is a pretty pointless addition to the franchise. Even The Spy Who Shagged Me smacked more than a little of desperation, and here weve got the same old jokes coming out yet again. Worse still is that, of what new jokes there are, few work as well as those used in the original. For every chortle-provoking scene like the opener or the flashback to a young Powers in his school days, there are at least a couple of attempts that are just plain unfunny (and someone REALLY should have sat Myers down before hand and explained to him that simply being from Holland isnt as side-splittingly hilarious as he seems to think).