MIKE SMITH				NOLAN B. CANOVA
What can I say about a film that manages to find cameos for nearly a dozen major Hollywood names.......in the first five minutes? How about it's funny as hell! There are many other surprise stars in this third installment in the saga of England's best dentally-challenged spy. Chief among them is the always great Michael Caine, who appears here as Austin's secret-agent father, Nigel. Powers senior is just as randy as his offspring, and Caine is obviously having a grand time spoofing a genre he helped create. The story this time focuses on a new bad guy, a Dutchman who lost his genitals in a tragic smelting accident........."Goldmember." Played by Myers, Goldmember is a roller disco fool who uses the titles of popular 70's songs in his everyday language.....and then pauses to name the group that performed it. Myers also plays his arch enemy, Dr. Evil, as well as the Scottish assassin Fat Bastard, who is now making his money as a sumo wrestler. Goldmember has teamed with Dr. Evil to once again try to take over the world. Will his plans succeed? If they did, there wouldn't be a fourth movie, would there? Much funnier then the first two films, "Goldmember" delivers the laughs in bunches. Also top notch is the cast, who manage to keep a straight face during even the most outrageous scenes. Special praise for pop singer Beyoncé Knowles, who plays Austin's' former 70's love Foxxy Cleopatra (think a sexier Pam Greer, which I know is hard since Pam Greer is listed in the dictionary as the definition as sexy). Fans of the series will be happy to know that all signs point to another film down the road. May I suggest the title "Thunderballs?"				To tell you the truth, although I finally gave this Austin Powers entry 3 stars, it was only after it finally picked up and went somewhere halfway into the movie! Up till then it was a limp 2-star affair. The opening segment is a truly enjoyable send-up of a famous Hollywood director's "vision" of what a "serious" Austin Powers action-flick should look like, complete with a bevy of brand-name stars appearing with machine-gun rapidity (this part apes an earlier gag where the whole thing is a "movie within a movie"--was that Part 2?) That finished, and with a middlin of plot involved, all the major characters whoop it up for endless minutes in a barrage of end-to-end music videos! I was starting to fidget in my seat wondering what the hell was going on here, when finally the film settled into a narrative of some sort. Apparently, Austin is wrestling with abandonment issues concerning his seemingly uncaring father (Michael Caine), when suddenly the senior Powers is kidnapped. The new bad guy "Goldmember" (named after his "tragic smelting accident"---pure Myers, that) has escaped not to a place, but a time: 1975, the beginning waves of the disco movement. Dr. Evil is back to help antagonize the situation and once again try a ham-handed ploy at holding the world hostage for a billion, trillion, gazillion dollars. The Dr. Evil character is weirdly off somehow--he's subtly different than in previous movies, more flamboyant or something. Fat Bastard, Number Two, and Evil's son, Scott, are all aboard as well as the German assistant who screeches orders.  I agree that Beyoncé Knowles as the sexy Foxxy Cleopatra was an unexpected pleasure. But what saved this movie for me was the last reel where previous "Austin gags" got screen time (the "obscene shadows" bit; the "look up there--that looks like a ..." bit). But most of all, one scene where Austin and Mini-Me (Mini-Me has to be the best sport in Hollywood--good Christ, do they abuse that little guy) have to sneak into a facility under a massive overcoat and manage a urine sample to a lab tech. This alone had me literally doubled-over laughing. And since that's all I can ask of a comedy--leaving me in pain---what the hell, 3 stars it is.