American cinema once offered a steady menu of secret agent thrillers, propelled by the superior feats of James Bond, beginning with "Dr. No" (1962). 007's success brought lame to middling copycats. Even the third Bond, "Goldfinger" (1964), showed danger signals of escalating lunacy with its outlandish villains, super gadgets, and Pussy Galore. The seeds were planted and future comedy was teething.
1. "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" (1997)
Yeah, baby! Enter Mike Myers as Austin Powers, not only the quintessential British stunt spy and ladies man, but he's also decidedly daft, battling a bumbling egomaniacal nemesis, Dr. Evil (Myers), and the titillating Fembots. The plots in these spoofy homages are inconsequential to the wild, often vulgar and lascivious comedy. Here our cryogenically frozen '60s hero is thawed into the '90s. Cool.
2. "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (1999)
Yeah, boobies! Our Man Flaunt meets his match in the shapes of ultra fantasy Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham), not that Elizabeth Hurley was to be ignored in the first film. World domination is not the current crisis, which revolves around the sinister swiping of Austin's powerful "mojo!" Dr. Evil gets cloned into 1/8th-sized Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) and Myers' introduces himself as Fat Bastard.3. "Austin Powers in Goldmember" (2002)
Inspired sequences -- the first four minutes are worth the price and fun with subtitles is always welcome -- among often muddled, shopworn proceedings. Mike Myers' ho-hum Goldmember character exists mostly for the title gag; 1975 soul sistah Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyonce Knowles) has little to do except look stunning, but it's Mini-Me in a scuba suit who is truly adorable. Yes, see it!