DVD Reviews: Austin Powers in Goldmember

The third instalment in the series, Austin Powers in Goldmember is an excellent addition to the wonderful films that have gone before it. Considering the great response to the first two movies, the team had their work cut out for them in coming up with something that would either match or top their previous work and still delight the audiences. Whilst certainly not topping previous efforts, Goldmember has a good crack at it and for the most part succeeds with some side-splitting comedy.

Once again star Mike Myers has got his work cut out for him, playing the parts of all the major characters: Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard and new villain Goldmember who naturally enough has such a fixation with gold that he dipped his genitalia into molten gold! Hailing from Holland, Goldmember also has the disgusting habit of taking the skin that is constantly peeling from him and eating it. Where they got that idea from, I'll never know, but it sure as hell is stomach churning whilst hilarious.

Beyonce Knowles is the stunning Foxxy Cleopatra, the love interest in this instalment and also in real life one of the girls in supergroup Destiny's Child. This film introduces Knowles to the movies and certainly does her credit as her character exudes sassiness and sexiness throughout and she is a good partner for Myers. Hopefully we'll see more of her either reprising this role or in others.

The disc is chock full of goodness for the DVD aficionado and provides comprehensive behind the scenes and making of featurettes. There is a also a very insightful audio commentary from Mike Myers and director Jay Roach. My one complaint about the commentary was that it was recorded too low, also the men speak in muttered tones somewhat making it a tad hard to hear everything said. This is only minor but still relevant. The movie itself has wonderful quality picture and audio and sound buffs should go absolutely nuts over it with the disc supporting DTS ES6.1 sound.

There are also a number of music videos that will tickle most people's fancy, chances are the most played will be the shameless take on Jay Z's Hard Knock Life by Dr. Evil and Mini Me. It's hilarious and a wonderful touch.

Despite the extensive extras given on the disc, it's a shame that they couldn't have been a little longer than the sparse 2-4 minutes each that most of them actually run for. They are informative and humorous and a wonderful addition to a pretty cool disc. Fans of the series look out for this one; Austin is back and he's bringing home the mojo baby! Yeah!