Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, directed by Jay Roach, is the first film of the Austin Powers series.
Austin Powers, a super-spy from the 1960s and his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil, both played by comedian Mike Myers, have faced each other many times during the decade. In 1967 Dr. Evil is placed in cryostasis to return at a time he wouldn't be expected. Austin Powers is also placed in cryostasis, should his services be needed in the future. When they are thawed out in 1997 to battle again, hilarity ensues as the duo has to learn how to adjust in the 1990s.
The movie also stars Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner, and Seth Green.
The film was moderately successful at the box office, earning about US$ 68 million worldwide, but it was an extremely popular video rental, prompting New Line Cinema to fund sequels Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Austin Powers is particularly noted for the joyful manic hyper sexual exclamations "Yeah, baby! Yeah!" and "Ohh, behave!"
Trivia
- Dr. Evil is a spoof of James Bond's Ernst Stavro Blofeld
- Number Two is a spoof of the James Bond villain Emilio Largo who is number two in Blofeld's criminal organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E..
- Random Task is a spoof of Oddjob from Goldfinger
- Alotta Fagina is a spoof from Pussy Galore (in some versions broadcast on American commercial television, the name Alotta Fagina is changed to Alotta Cleavaga).
- Mrs. Kensington (the mother of Hurley's character, and also a spy) is a spoof of Mrs. Peel from The Avengers.
- The theme music to this and the other Austin Powers films is "Soul Bossa Nova" by Quincy Jones. However, to Canadians such as Mike Myers, this piece of music is best known as the theme of the long-running Canadian game show, Definition.
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