Austin Powers | |
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Series logo
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Directed by | Jay Roach |
Produced by | |
Written by | |
Starring | |
Music by | George S. Clinton |
Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release date
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1997-2002 |
Running time
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286 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $112.5 million |
Box office | $676.3 million |
The Austin Powers series is a series of three American action-comedy films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). The films were directed by Jay Roach; produced, written by and starring Mike Myers as both the title character and Dr. Evil; and distributed by New Line Cinema.
The franchise parodies numerous films and characters, including James Bond, Derek Flint, Matt Helm, and Jason King, and incorporates myriad other elements of popular culture as it follows a British spy's quest to bring his nemesis down. The character represents an archetype of 1960s Swinging London, with his advocacy for free love, his use of obscure impressions and his clothing style.
The films poke fun at the outrageous plots, rampant sexual innuendo, and two-dimensional characteristically associated with 1960s spy films, as well as the cliché of the ultra-suave super spy. Contrary to the handsome, super-smooth leading men of the James Bond genre, Austin Powers is not conventionally attractive (he is especially known for his bad teeth), although female characters in the films seem to find him irresistible.
The general theme of the films is that the arch-villain Dr. Evil plots to extort large sums of money from governments or international bodies but is constantly thwarted by Powers, and (to a degree) his own inexperience with life and culture in the 1990s. In the first film, Austin and Dr. Evil are awakened after being cryogenically frozen for 30 years. Continuing to incorporate cultural elements of the 1960s and 1970s, the second and third films feature time travel as a plot device and deliberately overlook inconsistencies. A proposed fourth film, Austin Powers 4, has reportedly been in development since 2005, but has yet to be produced as of 2016.