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Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
New Line Cinema

Austin Powers:  The Spy Who Shagged Me reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 59 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.1 out of 10
based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 12 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual innuendo and crude humor

Starring Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Rob Lowe, and Elizabeth Hurley

Austin (Myers) must time travel back to the Swinging Sixties, regain his mojo and save the world from destruction. (New Line Cinema)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Mike Myers (also characters)
Michael McCullers
 
DIRECTED BY: Jay Roach  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: November 16, 1999 
Video: November 16, 1999 
Theatrical: June 11, 1999 
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91
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.
88
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."
80
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.
80
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.
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80
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.
78
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's all fab, baby, a kicky, wiggy sequel that scores on all levels, from the sexy to the sublime.
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75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Give your brain the night off, and Myers will make you smile too.
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75
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
As a character, Austin Powers hasn't worn out his welcome, exactly, but he has outlived his novelty.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Places Myers firmly on the top rung of movie comics.
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75
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.
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70
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.
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70
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.
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70
Washington Post Desson Thomson
There's a rampant looseness to this movie, and it's subversively liberating.
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70
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]
70
Washington Post Rita Kempley
With its outrageous double-entendre, gonzo performances and appalling lack of restraint, the sequel is more than a guilty pleasure.
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70
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.
63
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.
63
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Turns out to be less than the sum of its wonderfully silly and bizarre parts.
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63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There is an underlying likability to Austin Powers that sort of carries us through the movie.
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63
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
For my taste, too much of the new Powers looks like bad TV and sounds like old burlesque.
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60
Film.com Gemma Files
Actually funnier than the first movie, but getting to those parts requires a little bit of patient mental fast-forwarding.
60
Newsweek Kendall Hamilton
If it all seems a bit dizzying, it is, but there's plenty to enjoy.
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50
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
A movie that's nearly as good as its publicity campaign.
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50
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.
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50
Variety Dennis Harvey
Script just doesn’t have it in terms of fresh narrative developments or individual gags.
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50
Time Richard Corliss
AP2 starts out bright and clever--shagnificent, we might almost say--before sinking into a swamp of shagnation.
50
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.
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50
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.
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50
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.
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50
The New York Times Janet Maslin
Several love beads short of its predecessor. Intermittently hilarious comedy.
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50
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.
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40
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Would be too long even if it were twice as funny. And that about sums up the movie.
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20
Film.com Sean Means
I just really, really, really, don't like this movie, and I don't care who knows it.
10
Dallas Observer Patrick Williams
Kills whatever charm the first movie had by recycling its few serviceable parts.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Clint T. gave it an8:
There are great jokes aplenty in this, I reckon, funniest of the current Austin Powers trilogy (will there be a fourth?). This film falls into my list of Top 5 comedy films- a testament to it’s hilarity. I’ll give this hilarious and really very stylish film 8 out 10.

R. Dalvi gave it a7:
Entertaining and funny but has less laughs than its predecessor.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Like the first, a good laugh, but less satisfying in this installment.

Dave C. gave it a 6:
Lacking in the satire and wit of the original, this film is more flashy and MTV-esque, relies more on physical humour and to its credit, succeeds, it's very funny, if not as funny as the first film but it's Dr. Evil who gets all the best moments.

Andrew M. gave it an 8:
Not to everyone's taste, that's a fact. But I, personally, found this to be one heck of a funny film. I saw the first and was amused and entertained, but not sent into hysterics. Part II, on the other hand, came a lot closer to accomplishing this. The script was better, the plot was better, the directing was better, the gags were better, even the girl was better; Heather Graham is simply the bomb in this film! Whoo baby! A naughty, hedonistic film that is lot of fun, if you let yourself go.

Pat C. gave it a 2:
Annoying. Part 2.

Jeremy gave it an 8:
The difference between the amusing original and hillarious sequel is a bigger emphasis on Myers talents, and Heather Graham who is funny and sexy while Elizabeth Hurley was just sexy.

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