he final installment of the Austin Powers trilogy finds Austin (Myers) once again up against his nemesis, Dr. Evil (also Myers). This time, Dr. Evil has transported a criminal mastermind from 1975 to the present day to help him in his latest scheme to take over the world. Goldmember (yet again, Myers)—so called because of an "unfortunate smelting accident" which literally left him with a gold member—teams up with Dr. Evil to kidnap Nigel Powers (Caine), Austin's father and a famous superspy in his own right.
Before he can complete the rest of his nefarious plan, Dr. Evil is caught and imprisoned in a high-security facility where Austin confronts him in a scene reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs. In exchange for a transfer to minimum-security prison, Dr. Evil tells him that Goldmember is holding his father captive back in 1975.
Faced with the rescue mission, Austin must battle not only the forces of evil, but his own inner demons as well. Years of neglect by his absentee father have left Austin with emotional scars that he must put aside if he is going to save him from Goldmember's clutches. Using a time-traveling pimp-mobile, Austin flashes back to 1975, where he enlists the help of yet another sexy and competent fellow spy—a disco-era diva named Foxxy Cleopatra (Knowles)—who has infiltrated Goldmember's organization.
Meanwhile, in the present, Dr. Evil breaks out of prison and returns to his submarine lair to find that his son Scott (Green) has finally taken an interest in the family business. A rivalry ensues between Scott and the diminutive clone Mini-Me (Troyer) that could tip the balance between good and evil. The scales are tipped even further when a secret past is revealed that will change the lives of all the characters forever.
Not quite as good as gold
In keeping with the tone of the first two films, Austin Powers in Goldmember is an irreverent send-up of the spy genre with a variety of other random pop-culture references thrown in for good measure. Being culturally literate, the filmmakers have seen enough sequels to avoid the pitfalls by reprising the favorite, familiar bits with a new twist. The central theme about fathers and sons has some emotional resonance (clearly infused with Myers' real-life feelings about his relationship with his own father), and makes for some intriguing new revelations about the characters' pasts.
Beyond that, unfortunately, the plot is little more than a haphazard route from one sight gag to the next. Some of them work—such as a scene in which seemingly profane subtitles are partially illegible against strategically placed white objects in the background—but a lot of them last long past the point of amusement. In typical Powers fashion, there is an overly heavy reliance on bodily function humor, particularly in the scenes involving the return of the inexplicably popular Fat Bastard (yet another of Myers' characters).
Despite the crudeness of Fat Bastard, however, it is Myers' newest character—the eponymous Goldmember—who is the least appealing in the film. He may be bizarre, but he serves little purpose and it seems as though he's there for the sake of being bizarre. "I'm Dutch," he quips. "Isn't that
veird?" The literal pun about his golden genitals is virtually dead on arrival and only gets less humorous every time it's mentioned.
Making her film debut, Knowles (of the pop group Destiny's Child) embodies the spirit of 1970s' blaxploitation heroines with aplomb and holds her own against Myers and the rest of the capable and talented cast. There's no doubt that everyone involved has a lot of fun making these films, and their enthusiasm has not diminished with time. Myers in particular doesn't seem to have tired of the world of Austin Powers yet.
