Austin Powers in Goldmember - 5Star

Mike Myers and Beyoncé Knowles hit the road

(Image credit: Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon, SMPSP)

Austin Powers (Mike Myers) returns to 1975 and grooves with Beyoncé Knowles in this gag-packed, delightfully daft third movie. 4/5 stars

A guest star-laden extract from Bond-style ‘Austinpussy’ (featuring Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow) gets the film off to a rollicking start, before Myers moves quickly into his stride as Austin, Dr Evil, Fat Bastard and the megalomaniac Dutchman Goldmember.

The film also benefits from the injection of a beaming Michael Caine as Austin's oft-absent father. 'There are only two things I can't stand,' he snarls. 'People who are intolerant of other people's cultures - and the Dutch!'

Some of the infantile humour does wear a bit thin, but there are enough hilarious and inventive jokes to forgive the lapses. A peeing gag and a variation on the old shadows-in-the-tent routine are irresistibly well sustained - and just wait for John Travolta's big moment!

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.