Like most everyone else here in the West who was around in the nineties, I had already seen the Austin Powers movies. So I was familiar with them.
Or so I thought.
But after watching the first installment of this movie series when it became available to be viewed for free on Youtube, what surprised me - even shocked me to some extent - was just how much I had actually forgotten of what happened. Guess I had not figured on how much of these movies had escaped my memory. Then, when you see the date, and notice that it has been nearly three decades since the first Austin Powers movie came out, it made a lot more sense.
It is difficult today to recall just how popular these movies had been at the time. I remember visiting Seattle in 1997 during the NBA playoffs, and people having the "Yeah, Baby!" posters on display from the windows of their homes. That had apparently become a popular trend relating to the team back in the spring of 1997.
Nor was it relegated to just the Supersonics, or the city of Seattle. It seemed that everyone everywhere was into imitating something from the Austin Powers movies. They were phenomenally popular back in the late nineties.
Yeah, baby!
So having had the opportunity to watch these movies again over the course of many years, I had somehow largely avoided them. After all, I had seen them years ago, and there was the presumption of remembering them. Yet after actually watching the first one again, and realizing how much had apparently slipped my mind, it was obvious that I enjoyed watching the movie once again. It really is consistently funny, and there are some moments which are actually quite hilarious.
This is actually the first of those movies, the one which made the franchise. Having seen a few James Bond movies, which can be funny at times, but which often are mostly humorless, this series was refreshing in certain respects, because it just does not take itself too seriously. That, of course, is a large part of the joke.
In short, I enjoyed the movie. Yes, it had been a long time. Too long, apparently. But I watched it again, and enjoyed it quite a lot. It reminded me also that watching a movie that you have not seen in many years, perhaps even decades, makes it sometimes feel like a whole new movie. You see things that perhaps escaped you on the first or even second viewing. That was the case this time, as well. If anything, it enhanced the movie viewing experience.
Highly recommended!
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