This third Austin Powers installment is more of a series of skits instead of a movie. While certain sketches are indeed very funny, most of them reflect the fact that this joke has gotten a little old. Maybe one shouldn’t expect much from a movie with characters named Goldmember and Fat Bastard, but if a film intends to make you laugh yet is a majority of tiresome routines, then the filmmakers have worn out their welcome. The first Austin Powers was a very clever, hilarious spoof of James Bond and other action films. Its originality proved to be its greatest asset, because the follow-up The Spy Who Shagged Me, was atrocious, lacking the creativity and charm of the original. This one is better, with a few gags that are particularly good, but as a whole this movie is so all over the place that it is hard to remember what is the point of it all.

The opening is very encouraging, with several A list cameos, and the now traditional song and dance number. The movie has several musical numbers, one of which fails badly. You’d think after the Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle back in 1985, people would learn that doing a rap parody is a bad idea, to the degree that the audience is almost embarrassed for the participants. Maybe in Austin Powers 4 he can go back in time and prevent this from happening.

The plot, if you want to call it that, involves Austin Powers traveling back in time to the year 1975 to rescue his father (Michael Caine) from the title villain Goldmember (Mike Myers). Goldmember owns a club, Studio 69, where Austin joins forces with Foxy Cleopatra (Boynce Knowles of Destiny’s Child), an agent who, like all the women in his life, he had a fling with. Austin is also once again trying to stop Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) from destroying the polar ice caps with his secret weapon, Preparation H. To raise money to build his weapon, Dr. Evil now operates a Hollywood Talent Agency, the definition of evil. Aside from Powers, Goldmember, and Dr. Evil, Myers plays Fat Bastard, a Scotsman who seems to enjoy describing the contents of his ‘bathroom endeavors’.

The movie functions on a simple level of what works and what doesn’t, it is a big budget version of a Saturday Night Live special featuring Mike Myers. Dr. Evil is good, but his act is the same as it was before. Same goes for Powers, although there is a humorous flashback to their school days. Fat Bastard is better than he was last time, and is in one of the funnier bits, but he is almost too disgusting to look at. Goldmember, whether he’s supposed to be funny, or the point is that he’s not intended to be funny, he’s well, not. He is one joke that doesn’t work either way. As Foxy Cleopatra, an obvious parody of 1970s blaxploitation heroines, Knowles calls everyone ‘sugar’ a lot, but she looks a lot better than she can act. Maybe I’m being unfair and comedy isn’t her thing, but Samuel L. Jackson may be right when he said recently something to the effect that musicians should stick to music so actors can act. Fred Savage plays the Mole, who as you probably saw in the commercials, has a giant mole above his upper lip. As predictable as this joke is, they pull it off well. Caine enjoys himself as Austin’s father, and Seth Green is good as Dr. Evil’s son Scott. I suspect I might be in the minority when I think that they take the Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) joke a little too far, almost in a condescending way.

Its hard to recommend a movie that fails more than it succeeds, and even the best scenes aren’t memorable. The modern moviegoer has to accept that product placement is part of the experience. In this case, Taco Bell is the star. This film made me neither hungry for Mexican food, or wanting another Austin Powers movie, which is probably inevitable.

Rating: **