Despite Mike Myers' efforts, the film is nothing new, has a stupid, poorly written story, and isn't funny.
After a great success with the first film, the sequel became quite easy to predict. It was obvious that they were going to try to make a second movie that continued the story, and tried to raise some more money from the box office. I'm not a fan of this kind of humor, too scatological and sexual, but I think this movie was frankly worse than its immediate predecessor.
The biggest problem with this film is not even the dirty, stupid jokes and zero sense of humor, but a poorly written script, without original ideas and quite tiring. The film's story is very simple to summarize: Austin Powers, single and free again, finally realizes that Dr. Evil, years before, used a time machine to steal his manhood while he was frozen. For a man as perverted and quinky as Powers, being without what he calls a “mojo” is simply catastrophic. So he has to use another time machine, go back to the 60s and try to stop Dr. Evil in order to regain his masculinity. Sound really stupid? Maybe because it is! And I prefer not to mention the ending, where we have two versions of the main agent, and we came to the conclusion that it was never really necessary to recover his virility. In addition to being stupid, the movie is also pointless.
Myers continues to assure the main characters of the film, that is, the protagonist, the great villain and a deformed criminal who is nothing more than a bunch of Scottish lard (do Scots feel offended by such a caricature?). He is a good actor, I have no doubt that he is committed to his work. However, the rest of the cast is uninteresting, tiresome and doesn't seem to have any ideas or even try to add anything else to the production that can increase its quality. Heather Graham is beautiful, but not very good as an actress, and the film saved her from spending the rest of her career making adult films. Seth Green also tries to do something witty and interesting, but he's short on time and quality material. Finally, a note of praise for Verne Troyer and Mindy Sterling.
Technically, the film is quite weak. It plays a lot with the colorful and flashy look of the 60's, and that's the most beautiful and elegant aspect of the whole movie. I liked the costumes, the sets and the characterization, in particular Myers, chameleonic and skilled in the various characters he plays (in fact, the film was nominated for an Oscar in the Characterization category). The cinematography also seeks to take advantage of and emphasize the visual beauty that exists here, while the editing sought to give the film a rhythm that was not tiring. I can't say that the efforts were in vain, the film would be unbearable if it were slower.
