Austin Powers

VidRev by Tony Jefferies

More inspired nonsense from the mad mind of Mike Myers. Myers plays two roles: that of the unctious nitwit Austin Powers, a time-warp refugee between the swinging sixties and the present and his enemy, the dopey Dr. Evil. Those interested in what passes for the plot should refer to the famous Sean Connery James Bond movies of the sixties, in particular, Dr. No. But the plot is dispensable. Basically the movie, as in all Myers movies, is an excuse for Mike to romp through an endless series of sight gags, innuendos (if that's not extending the word's definition) and general all round silliness. Taken individually some of these set pieces are quite funny; funny enough at least to justify the film's haphazard unevenness.
Power's off-sider is the extremely shagadelic Elizabeth Hurley who performs creditably enough in a role hardly demanding of Oscar winning talent and most of the humour bounces off her interplay with the recalcitrant A.P. But it is Austin who provides in both roles the pivot for the film's humour. A.P. is the epitome of the swinging sixties root rat and in between single and double entendres provides as good a definition of that period's raisin d'etre as any to be found in learned sociological texts: '...having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection while at the same time experimenting with mind expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment...'.
Interspersed with the 'groo-vy bay-bee's, 'oh bee-have!'s, 'switched-on, smashing, shagadelic's' poor Austin struggles to come to grips with the nineties and, judging from the above, it's not hard to see some of the problems Austin might encounter. Of course, for what it's worth, all ends well and, yes, A.P. does end up with the delectable Ms. Hurley. Like all of Myer's work its saving grace is its lack of pretension. Its attention stays firmly focused on the funny bone and somewhere below the navel and in an era when most Hollywood movies end up farcical while trying to be something else at least this one is just content to be farcical. This is one hell of a movie - I'd go so far as to say a sequel is almost inevitable.

The Empire Records Soundtrack

DiskRev by Melanie Henderson

For those who have seen the movie Empire Records, this is the soundtrack. It's excellent and the good thing about it is that many of the artists on the CD were virtually unknown to me. I'd never heard of bands called Toad the Wet Sprocket, Better than Ezra and Ape Hangers but they really impressed with the underground sound they produce.
There are also some very well known bands on the CD such as The Gin Blossoms, The Cranberries and the Cruel Sea. Edwyn Collins is also on the CD for those that know and like his music which isn't me. He reminds me a lot of Boy George, maybe it's because of the sleazyness of his music.
The soundtrack has a variety of music ranging from the soft mellow sounds of The Innocence Mission's song Bright as Yellow to the nearly headbanging sounds of The Meices' song Ready, Steady, Go and the rest are in between. Even Coyote Shivers, an actor on the movie has his song on the album.
Overall I really enjoyed the C.D and I'm sure many others will also like it. It's hard to get hold of though because it's pretty old, I looked all over Darwin for it and found one copy. A strange thing about the soundtrack and the movie is that a lot of the music on the movie is not on the CD. This is what annoyed me about the CD, I wanted the music from the movie but most of it wasn't there, don't be deterred though. I give 4.5/5 spuds for the CD because I hate Edwyn Collins and the song he sings on it. Other than that I would have to say that the Empire Records soundtrack is one of the best I've heard coming close to The Crow and Pulp Fiction soundtracks.