Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

For long stretches, the film is just as funny as the first -- which is saying something, since the first is one of the funniest comedies of the decade, the only film in years to truly infiltrate our communal language and sense of humor.

USA Today Mike Clark

There is enough mirthful good will generated to justify even another sequel. May we suggest: "License to Shag," "You Only Shag Twice" or "Thundershag."

TNT RoughCut Graham Verdon

For now, there are enough big laughs and women in tight clothing to make this one of the best comedy sequels in recent memory and a worthy candidate for the smart, no-brainer comedy of the summer.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The most consistently funny studio sequel in some time, and the rare blockbuster that actually delivers on what it promises.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The Spy Who Shagged Me is impossible-to-resist summer fun that left me feeling, dare I say, randy for more? Oh, behave.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's all fab, baby, a kicky, wiggy sequel that scores on all levels, from the sexy to the sublime.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Give your brain the night off, and Myers will make you smile too.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

As a character, Austin Powers hasn't worn out his welcome, exactly, but he has outlived his novelty.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Places Myers firmly on the top rung of movie comics.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

A collection of arbitrary sketches, bits and improvs jammed into a locker room-style variety show masquerading as some semblance of a narrative.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Given the choice between a movie that's better structured and only half as funny, I'd take The Spy Who Shagged Me (or its predecessor, for that matter) any day.

Slate David Edelstein

Better than anyone dared hope: bigger, more inventive, and more frolicsome than its predecessor, with a grab bag of scatological gags that are almost as riotous when you think back on them.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There's a rampant looseness to this movie, and it's subversively liberating.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Myers has a singular talent for skit humor… You can get away with an awful lot of gross, juvenile humor if you've got that to fall back on. [11 June 1999, Calendar, p.F-1]

Washington Post Rita Kempley

With its outrageous double-entendre, gonzo performances and appalling lack of restraint, the sequel is more than a guilty pleasure.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

The jokes fly so furiously that it'd be impossible for a single weak performance (Graham) to unravel this very funny film.

New York Post Rod Dreher

It all gets repetitive, and after about the halfway point, you get the feeling that Myers and Co. don't know where to go next, and are making it up as they go along.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Turns out to be less than the sum of its wonderfully silly and bizarre parts.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is an underlying likability to Austin Powers that sort of carries us through the movie.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

For my taste, too much of the new Powers looks like bad TV and sounds like old burlesque.

Film.com Gemma Files

Actually funnier than the first movie, but getting to those parts requires a little bit of patient mental fast-forwarding.

Newsweek Kendall Hamilton

If it all seems a bit dizzying, it is, but there's plenty to enjoy.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

A movie that's nearly as good as its publicity campaign.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

At this point, the effect of Myers' one-man Sixties love-in already feels less shagadelic than just shagged out.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Script just doesn’t have it in terms of fresh narrative developments or individual gags.

Time Richard Corliss

AP2 starts out bright and clever--shagnificent, we might almost say--before sinking into a swamp of shagnation.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The repulsive turn of events erased all my good memories of the first half, and makes the movie hard to recommend to a normal human being.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Too much of what The Spy Who Shagged Me has to offer is tired and derivative, and, when the various jokes and gags are tallied, there are many more misses than hits.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

After a while it becomes apparent that this movie is too eager to please, too willing to sacrifice its point of view toward its targets to sustain itself for the length of a feature.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Several love beads short of its predecessor. Intermittently hilarious comedy.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The satire is crammed with sexual and scatological humor; some may find this Rabelaisian and refreshing, while others will detect the end of civilization as we know it.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Would be too long even if it were twice as funny. And that about sums up the movie.

Film.com Sean Means

I just really, really, really, don't like this movie, and I don't care who knows it.

Dallas Observer Patrick Williams

Kills whatever charm the first movie had by recycling its few serviceable parts.