I never had any real intention to watch Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in full. I wasn’t won over by the previews when it was released in 1997, and ignored it upon its release. Later, when some friends were watching it, I caught about a third of it. I thought it was OK, but nothing I felt compelled to watch the whole thing. Then I saw the first sequel, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, also directed by Jay Roach, and frankly, it was terrible. So I didn’t have any inclination to go back to the first one and view it in full — after all, what I had seen hadn’t wowed me, and what if what I had seen was the only tolerable part?
Call it fate or dumb luck, but circumstances conspired against me. Flixster has a few offers going currently whereby one can download a few high-resolution movies from them for free. I chose Dog Day Afternoon for one, and was thinking I’d get to choose on the other two as well. Nuh uh. Those were randomly selected, and you get what they give, and one of the ones I got was Austin Powers. I may not have been intending to watch it, but since I’ve got it available to me anyway, I’m going to make use of it. After all, the third was 17 Again, and I’m going to grit my teeth and watch that eventually, so surely I could make it through Austin Powers. Continue reading
