Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

It’s interesting how our brains categorize our favorite films. Some of the movies that we’ve seen and adore find themselves at the top of our minds often, and we revisit them with glee and tell everyone to watch them whenever we get the chance. But, for every beloved film in our lives that is slowly being worn out by our Blu Ray players, there are a bevy of movies that brought us great joy and satisfaction that quite frankly…we kind of forget about. These are the movies that stay on the shelf or aren’t even in our collection and it’s just fascinating that our brains let them go to the wayside.
 
After all, we are creatures that feed off of our memories and the happiness they bring us, and that’s one reason why we are addicted to our favorite motion pictures. But, the question at hand is why we forget about movies we love and honestly, I’m not sure there’s one exact answer to that. We could have grown out of them, they may not hold the same meaning anymore, the list goes on and on. But if there’s one solid reason that I think applies to this discussion, it’s that…sometimes they encapsulate a particular moment or a particular time in our lives that holds a special meaning to us and our minds preserve that, motivating us to revisit other memories and stories instead.
 
Of course, that’s just an outlandish theory of mine and we may never know exactly why some of our favorite films go the wayside. But what we can agree upon, is that when we do stumble upon them once again, we are left wondering why on earth we let them slip away in the first place. And thanks to the magic of the Alamo Drafthouse, with an assist from my sister, I recently had the opportunity to revisit a magical comedy that I damn near forget about myself; Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and let me tell you know, I am so incredibly happy that I took the time to see this again and re-discover the wonder of this true comedy classic.

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​Because this movie is just as funny as it was 21 years ago when it hit the big screen, and well, the enduring power of this movie is its jokes because once Mike Myers gets rolling and lets Doctor Evil and/or Austin do their thing it’s simply the stuff of magic and I found myself laughing hard at jokes and gags that I knew by heart and well, it pleased me to no end to see that these jokes, specifically Doctor Evil’s incredible monologues, still hold up after all this time and that the love present in this film for the James Bond franchise, despite the lampooning this movie provides of 007’s adventures, hasn’t diminished in the slightest.
 
If anything, I suppose the only gags that don’t work anymore are the sexual related sight gags involving sausages and melons because the audience I saw the movie with didn’t really laugh much at those and honestly, neither did I, but that’s okay. Because there’s plenty more humor to be found in this one and really, what stuck with me after watching this one again is the question, I posed earlier in that…how on earth did this movie slip my mind? And for me, the answer to that took a little time for my brain to achieve but more or less, this movie came out right as I was leaving high school, meaning that it is forever locked in a special segment of memories in my mind.
 
After all, at that point in my life, the future was in front of me and the euphoria that comes with that feeling and that time can never be replicated again, and that’s why this film is locked away in that special place. But I am quite glad I had the chance to revisit this one again and find new appreciation for it that isn’t related to that particular point in time and well, it’s clear I need to re-add this one to my collection and revisit it as often as possible. Because it really is one of the finest fish out of water stories out there, and a damn funny film and if by chance it’s slipped your mind as well for your own specific reasons, give it another try, you’ll be glad you did. 

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