Udenio, Fabiana

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery/The Spy Who Shagged Me/Goldmember

If you don't think Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) is one of the funniest movies of the 1990s, maybe you should be packed into a cryogenic time chamber and sent back to the decade whence you came. Perhaps it was the 1960s--the shagadelic decade when London hipster Austin Powers scored with gorgeous chicks as a fashion photographer by day, crime-fighting international man of mystery by night. Yeah, baby, yeah! But when Powers's arch nemesis, Dr. Evil, puts himself into a deep-freeze and travels via time machine to the late 1990s, Powers must follow him and foil Evil's nefarious scheme of global domination. Mike Myers plays dual roles as Powers and Dr. Evil, with Elizabeth Hurley as his present-day sidekick and karate-kicking paramour. A hilarious spoof of '60s spy movies, this colorful comedy actually gets funnier with successive viewings, making it a perfect home video for gloomy days and randy nights. Oh, behave!

"I put the grrr in swinger, baby!" a deliciously randy Powers coos near the beginning of The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and if the imagination of Austin creator Mike Myers seems to have sagged a bit, his energy surely hasn't. This friendly, go-for-broke sequel finds our man Austin heading back to the '60s to keep perennial nemesis Dr. Evil (Myers again) from blowing up the world--and, more importantly, to get back his mojo, that man-juice that turns Austin into irresistible catnip for women, especially American spygirl Felicity Shagwell (a pretty but vacant Heather Graham). The plot may be irreverent and illogical, the jokes may be bad, and the scenes may run on too long, but it's all delivered sunnily and with tongue firmly in cheek. Myers teams Dr. Evil with a diminutive clone, Mini-Me (Verne J. Troyer), then pulls a hat trick by playing a third character, the obese and disgusting Scottish assassin Fat Bastard.

Despite symptoms of sequelitis, Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: for every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of redundant shtick, juvenile scatology, and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers--returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember--thrives by favoring comedic chaos over coherent plotting. Once they've tossed Austin into the disco fever of 1975 (where he's sent to rescue his father, gamely played by Michael Caine), Myers and director Jay Roach seem vaguely adrift with old and new characters, including Verne Troyer's Mini-Me and pop star Beyoncé Knowles as Pam Grier-ish blaxpo-babe Foxxy Cleopatra. A bit tired, perhaps, but Powers hasn't lost his mojo.

The most colorful special agent, Austin Powers, will keep you laughing as he thwarts the efforts of the infamous Dr. Evil in this 3-pack of instant classic comedies. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Austin Powers in Goldmember

The Scarlet and the Black

Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery (New Line Platinum Series)

It's a smashing shagadelic party as Mike Myers (Wayne's World 1 & 2 So I Married an Axe Murderer) and Elizabeth Hurley (Dangerous Ground) star in a non-stop hilarious comedy adventure. Frozen in the 60's secret agent Austin Powers (Myers) is thawed back into action to once again battle his archenemy Dr. Evil. With his sexy sidekick Ms. Kensington (Hurley) Austin must stop Dr. Evil's outrageous plot to control the world. But first this time-warped swinger must get hip quick and discover that there's no free love in the 90's! An all-star supporting cast including Michael York Robert Wagner Mimi Rogers and Carrie Fisher make Austin Powers a wacky far-out trip you won't forget.Running Time: 90 min.System Requirements:Starring: Mike Myers Elizabeth Hurley Michael York and Robert Wagner Director: M. Jay Roach Produced by Demi Moore Mike Myers Jennif; written by Mike Myers; running time of 90 minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1997 New Line Audio Commentary Cast/Crew Bios Interactive Menus Additional Footage Video Format: Widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio Standard 1.33:1 (4.3) Enhanced for 16x9 TVs Subtitles: French English Track Info: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround French: Dolby Digital StereoFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 794043457722 Manufacturer No: N4577

If you don't think Austin Powers is one of the funniest movies of the 1990s, maybe you should be packed into a cryogenic time-chamber and sent back to the decade whence you came. Perhaps it was the 1960s--the shag-a-delic decade when London hipster Austin Powers scored with gorgeous chicks as a fashion photographer by day, crime-fighting international man of mystery by night. Yeah, baby, yeah! But when Powers's arch nemesis, Dr. Evil, puts himself into a deep-freeze and travels via time-machine to the late 1990s, Powers must follow him and foil Evil's nefarious scheme of global domination. Mike Myers plays dual roles as Powers and Dr. Evil, with Elizabeth Hurley as his present-day sidekick and karate- kicking paramour. A hilarious spoof of '60s spy movies, this colorful comedy actually gets funnier with successive viewings, making it a perfect home video for gloomy days and randy nights. Oh, behave! --Jeff Shannon

In the Army Now

Pauly Shore is definitely not one of the few good men army recruitment has in mind for molding into a soldier. But that doesn't stop pacifist Pauly from signing up for a hitch in the reserves in order to cash in on all the great perks, including free room and board and a steady salary for doing minimal work. Now this man's army is putting Pauly to the test. And Pauly the military misfit is serving his country as only he can, and single-handedly putting the army on red alert. Clipped of his curls and scuttling from a scud base in the African desert, he's battling with everything from rules and regulations to power-hungry authority figures and would-be world dictators. Surrendering to the comic crisis of being a soldier who marches to the beat of a different drummer, G.I. Shore is on a mission that promises to score a direct hit.

H.P. Lovecraft's Bride of Re-Animator

The mad Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) the tormented Dr. Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and the beheaded Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) return in this terrifying sequel to Re-Animator the most deliriously outrageous horror movie of the decade. It's been eight months since the Miskatonic Massacre stained the halls with blood-and Dr. West and Dr. Cain's experiments have taken a bizarre turn. Now they have gone beyond re-animating the dead...into the realm of creating new life. The legs of a hooker and the womb of a virgin are joined to the heart of Dr. Cain's dead girlfriend-and the bride is unleashed upon her mate in a climax of sensual horror. Features: Full Screen Version 2.0 Dolby Stereo Surround Scene AccessInteractive MenusSystem Requirements:Run Time: 99 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 012236125624 Manufacturer No: 12562

The Wedding Planner/My Best Friend's Wedding

THE WEDDING PLANNER: Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) is the wedding planner. She's ambitious hard-working extremely organized and she knows exactly what to do and say to make any wedding a spectacular event. But when Mary falls (literally) for a handsome doctor (Matthew McConaughey) her busy yet uncomplicated life is turned upside down - he's the groom in the biggest wedding of her career! Will she help him walk down the aisle with his internet tycoon girlfriend (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) or will Mary finally get to be the bride herself? As this sweet romantic comedy proves when it comes to love you can never plan what's going to happen. MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING: Julia Roberts Dermot Mulroney Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett star in MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING a high-spirited romantic comedy that serves up something wild something new something touching and something truly hilarious. Roberts dazzles as commitment-shy Jules Potter who reluctantly realizes she is in love with her best friend Michael (Mulroney). There is just one catch: he's about to marry someone else. Comically crazed and full of devious plans Jules will do anything to steal him back... except tell him the simple truth.System Requirements:Run Time: 209 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 043396137493 Manufacturer No: 13749

Summer School

Not nearly as raunchy as some of the other teen exploitation films that came out around the same time, Summer School is a feel-good movie in which all the characters are clueless, but also kind of likeable for some inexplicable reason. Mark Harmon stars as Freddy Shoop, a lazy physical education instructor who is forced by his nemesis (aka The Principal) to teach summer school. He's not lucky enough to get the overachiever kids who attend summer school because they want to; Shoop gets the students who have to attend because they've failed. As you might expect, his class is full of lazy losers who don't think of summer school as real school. Actually, Shoop kind of agrees with them. He's not as irresponsible as he would have them believe, although he's not above bribing them to do their best. Released theatrically in 1987, the film stars a very young Courtney Thorne-Smith (Melrose Place, According to Jim) as one of the students. And Kirstie Alley (Cheers) appears as Shoop's love interest. Directed by Carl Reiner, Summer School has an almost innocent feel. It's the silly movie trying to pass itself off as naughty, but really it's not. Summer School was released before filmmakers knew they needed to save good outtakes and bloopers for DVDs, so the special features aren't all that special. The most appealing is footage of some of the cast members while the film was being shot. But if you're curious about listening to the audio commentary offered by Harmon and Reiner, take a pass. Though both men are charming on talk shows, neither is particularly insightful here. --Jae-Ha Kim

The Godson

The Wedding Planner [Region 2]

The good news is, yes, Jennifer Lopez can do comedy. In The Wedding Planner Lopez is Mary, a lovable woman who believes "those who can't do, teach. Those who can't wed, plan!" Her slapstick moments are lighthearted and she is spot-on as the controlling, compulsive-yet-sweet planner. The bad news is Lopez didn't get much of a vehicle in which to test drive her newfound comedic skills.

Mary's life is her career. Planning other people's weddings takes all of her time, leaving no room for a love life of her own. Her only personal life is a Scrabble club, to which she and her father (Alex Rocco, whose wandering Italian accent is painful to listen to) belong. When a handsome young doctor (Matthew McConaughey) saves her from a collision with a runaway dumpster (really, it works), she is instantly wooed by his quiet charm. Too bad he's the fiancé of Mary's biggest client, Fran (played winningly by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), the job that will launch Mary as a partner in her firm.

The main problem with this film is that no one wants to hurt anyone else's feelings. Everyone is just so gosh-darn nice. In a subplot, Mary's father is trying to arrange her marriage to just the nicest Italian boy. Gee, he's sweet. Golly, Fran is nice. Is there ever a way out of this mess and to leave everyone smiling? Yet, there is a touch of old-fashioned romance to this wholesome film, which can only be described as "cute." And while things may unfold in a predictable manner, The Wedding Planner is still lighthearted fun of the sort that inspires dreamy romantic thoughts. --Jenny Brown

Boarding School