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New releases: Man of mystery? Not anymore
[Photo: New Line Cinema]
The jokes are getting old in the Austin Powers series, but at least its latest offering, Austin Powers in Goldmember, includes a rollicking chase scene.
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By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002
Austin Powers in Goldmember (PG-13)
The mojo is melting, and the fifth-grade bathroom humor is growing tiresome with the third adventure of everybody's favorite retrofitted shagadelic superspy. This time, Austin Powers (Mike Myers) is on a mission to save his dad, veteran spy Nigel Powers (Michael Caine, the obvious choice) from the clutches of Goldmember, a roller-skating, disco-loving, skin-flaking madman from Holland. A subplot has Dr. Evil (Myers) and Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) subjecting fellow prison inmates to a parody of Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life, and the jail sequences also include references to The Silence of the Lambs. Stop me before I laugh.
Myers at least has the smarts to frontload the comedy with a whiz-bang chase sequence topped with cameos by a string of A-list actors, as well as Steven Spielberg and composer Quincy Jones, and a song-and-dance routine that borrows from Singin' in the Rain. Britney Spears reveals her true identity, as a fembot with an exploding head; that's an image to cherish.
Beyonce Knowles, of Destiny's Child, makes an okay impression as sexy sidekick Foxy Cleopatra, a Pam Grier, blaxploitation-inspired heroine.
DVD extras: A cosmos of behind-the-scenes information on Goldmember is available via the "infinifilm" feature; an explication of the opening aerial stunt is among the multiple tidbits. An accompanying "fact track" is reminiscent of VH1's Pop-Up Videos. Among the additional features are a look at the "gentlemen spies" of the British agency MI-6, a discussion of the "Cockney rhyming slang" shared by junior and senior Powers, four music videos and a few deleted scenes.
Rent it if you enjoy: The first two Austin Powers movies, Undercover Brother or James Bond films.
Lilo & Stitch (PG)
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Lilo teaches her alien friend to hula in Lilo & Stitch, another charmer from the animation department at Disney.
[Photo:Walt Disney Pictures]
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Sure, the it's-okay-to-be-different message is a little familiar, but it's tough to resist the somewhat edgy charm of the story line and the title characters, and the typically high-quality visuals of this Disney animated feature, with its bright watercolor backgrounds. The story is set on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where space alien Stitch (writer-director Chris Sanders' guttural noises), cuddly but tough, has befriended Lilo (Daveigh Chase), a spoiled brat child in the care of lonely, pretty big sister Nani (Tia Carrere). A social worker (Ving Rhames) and representatives of the Galactic Federation (David Ogden Stiers and Kevin McDonald) are determined to break up this new family. Bonus points to the filmmakers for fun use of a handful of Elvis Presley hits. And extra credit for clever (as opposed to strained) references to Star Wars, Men in Black, Godzilla and Jaws.
DVD extras: A souped-up double-disc set is on the way, but this one has a lot to explore, including deleted scenes, a National Geographic Explorer-like look at Hawaii, trailers featuring Stitch's invasion of three other Disney movies, and several interactive games and goodies.
Rent it if you enjoy: Disney animated features, Blue Hawaii.
Body of Evidence (R)
A roomful of talented actors signed on to play second fiddle to Madonna in this derivative, second-rate thriller about a free-spirited sex machine who may or may not have used her body as a murder weapon. The Material Girl is her usual wooden self, straining hard for a movie career, as Rebecca, a woman on trial for causing the death of an older, wealthy lover. Willem Dafoe gets the Michael Douglas role, as a professional (a lawyer) sucked into the defendant's circle of lust. Director Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Little Vampire) doesn't do much with Julianne Moore, Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer, all of whom should have known better.
DVD extras: One side is R-rated, and the other is unrated, with extra skin exposure, particularly during a parking garage tryst between Madonna and Dafoe, or their daring doubles. Raise a hand if you've never seen Madonna naked.
Rent it if you enjoy: Madonna movies, erotic and/or silly crime thrillers or the shallow end of the Brian De Palma filmography.
CLASSICS ON DVD
The Producers (Not Rated) (1968)
How to succeed in show business without really trying? Simple: Stage a musical starring a comical, hippie-dippy Hitler. Put him in an over-the-top production number with S.S.-uniformed dancing beauties choreographed, Busby Berkeley-style, to form a rotating swastika, and a rousing theme song: Springtime for Hitler.
Those are among the elements intended to doom the Broadway extravaganza orchestrated by down-on-his-luck producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and nervous accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) in The Producers. The producers' bad taste, hilariously enough, is rewarded. So, too, were the sharp script and able direction of Mel Brooks, the funny man making his debut with the movie, just released with a new video transfer, enhanced audio and several bonus features.
An hourlong documentary has Brooks, Wilder and several others reminiscing about making the movie. The director, whose story was inspired by the corrupt methods of an old boss, first considered turning the idea into a book, and then a stage play (it since has become a hit Broadway musical, initially starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick). Brooks said that Universal wanted to title the movie Springtime for Mussolini, rather than Springtime for Hitler, the original title. Movie exhibitors nixed both, so the movie was renamed.
Rent it if you enjoy: Brooks' movies, show biz satires.
Mickey Mouse in Black and White, The Complete Goofy, Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio (Unrated).
Walt Disney Treasures, a series of elegantly packaged two-DVD sets released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Disney's birth, has been a real treat for Disneyphiles and pop culture completists. The latest trio of treasures, each double-packaged inside a numbered tin box, is duly impressive, with film historian Leonard Maltin's commentary, plus interviews with surviving animators, filmmakers and artists.
Mickey offers the celebrated mouse's 1928 debut in Steamboat Willie and 33 other short films, accessed chronologically or alphabetically, along with a rare black-and-white cartoon pencil sequence and story scripts for the celebrity rodent's first film and 1931's
Mickey Steps Out. Goofy, the eternal optimist of an underdog, gets a little respect, too, with a package centered on his 1939 debut and 45 other shorts. Behind the Scenes offers what it promises, with the help of vintage film and television material dating to the 1930s.
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