Emotion Collision: 24K+ short of solid gold or vino veritas

24K+ short of solid gold or vino veritas

Saw Austin Powers in Goldmember earlier this evening. Have to say that it was exactly what I expected: overall very funny, but continuing the downward spiral that most franchises seem to fall into. Like MIB2, Goldmember falls into the unfortunate habit of spoofing itself. Thankfully, the amusement factor is high enough to overcome the "there to frame the jokes" plot and the prop other characters (the title character & Foxy Cleopatra). And I have to agree that the opening sequence is hysterical.

Prior to the move, Brian, his wife Karen & I stopped by Grapevine Wines for their Friday wine tasting open house. $4 to sample 20 odd wines is not a bad deal. I found a few nice wines that'll make an excellent belated Father's Day present (I hope!).

Speaking of gifts and wine, I finally got Brian a belated, not so secret birthday present: a compressed air wine opener. My sister first showed me one of these things a year or so ago - it's very cool to see the cork pop-up semi-magically with no twisting & drilling. I hope Brian likes it.

Your Insatiable One ~ 2002.07.27 00:56 AM

On July 28, 2002 9:35 AM, Brian said

Yes, Brian does like the Cork Popper :-) I was surprised at the force with which the cork pops, but it is far faster than a corkscrew. Thanks Gene!

Overall, I was a diappointed by Goldmember. This is mostly due to the fact that my expectations going into the movie were too high. Seemingly reliable sources were promising that this movie would be of the same calibre as the first and one source even claimed it was the best Austin Powers yet. Well, anyone who does think it is the best Austin Powers yet must be a big fan of dick and fart jokes because this movie is full of them. Now don't get me wrong here - many parts of the movie were downright hilarious and overall, the movie was very funny. However, the jokes seemed a lot more obvious and definitely cruder than in the previous movies. One more thing - is it just me, or did Fat Bastard sound quite a bit like Shrek? Maybe he'll be green in the next one.

If you have seen the first two Austin Powers and haven't seen this one yet, go see it. It is very funny and the franchise hasn't gone so far downhill that it's not worth seeing yet.

On July 28, 2002 12:46 PM, yukino said

C'mon, it was better than the festering pus-heap that was the second one. So it's not a downward trend, strictly speaking!

On July 28, 2002 4:10 PM, Your Insatiable One said

Yeah. After this one viewing & some more thought, I'd have to agree with you Mike. So...it might be better to say that Austin Powers the franchise is in a holding pattern.

On July 29, 2002 12:57 PM, freesia said

I LOVED Goldmember. I didn't like the first one very much until about the third watch - I needed to get into the groove before the humor really appealed to me. The second one was pretty funny - with the exception of the whole drinking poo instead of coffee thing. Honestly, this is the most that I've liked an Austin Powers movie on the first watch. I'd definitely buy it.