the new austin powers film continues a movie tradition begun in the eighties . produce something , anything , that will get the high school and junior high kids in the theater because they buy more soda and popcorn than senior citizens . the usual hallmarks of this filmmaking tradition are all here . gross humor , sex jokes , silly sight gags , more sex jokes . and the film is a strong contender in the current race to be cruder , grosser and more outrageous than that last film . what the film is not , however , is funny . the plot centers around the return of dr . evil , who goes back in time to steal austin powers' mojo ( a liquid with red stuff in it extracted from austin's pelvis ) which gives austin his sexual prowess and the charisma to defeat his enemies . austin must go after him , and returns to the swinging sixties where free love and sexy secret agents had their heyday . i almost avoided this film because i did not like the original . but the films premise sounded like an excellent comic vehicle and the film received many good reviews . i wish i had stuck to my first impression . myers is trying to be the jerry lewis of this generation . and he has the talent to do it , at least as an actor . but the material he is working with here , much of it his own , falls short of anything resembling comic genius . this movie tries to carry the day with sight gags about drinking distilled feces , a five-hundred-pound fat man's butt crack , and a barrage of sex jokes aimed at the level of the average 15 year old . after some of these scenes , one has to wonder how gross the next generation of films will have to go to get an audiences attention . the direction also helps the film achieve a new low point in cinematic humor . for the most part , i felt as if i was watching a saturday morning chalderns live action tv show . there is no sense of comic timing or subtlety . the director just throws the material at us , giving us nothing except the hope that anyone with a camera could be a film director . i am sure the film will have appeal to many of the under 22 crowd , at least the one's who have yet to discover literacy . certainly the movie is directed towards the generation that prefers everything described as 'in your face , kick you in the teeth , take no prisoners , ( action-verb +blah blah blah ) . ' if you see the film and you find you're not laughing , there is nothing wrong with you . it just means you grew up since seventh grade .
