Will someone please explain to me how a moderately successful movie like 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery spawned a sequel that made nearly four times as much money? For those keeping track: Mystery took in about $53 million, whereas 1999’s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me raked in an amazing $205 million. The sequel actually surpassed the gross of the original during its opening weekend!

And all this despite the fact that Mystery offered a whole lot more entertainment than Shagged . My position in this regard should not be taken to an extreme: I didn't think Mystery was a classic, and I didn't find Shagged to be a complete dog.

But in comparison, the first film was much funnier and more creative. Much of the time, the sequel comes across as little more than a random melange of comedic elements with no unifying factor other than the desperate hope that the audience may actually find some of the bits funny.

When it turns out that wife Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley) was actually a Fembot, Austin Powers (Mike Myers) finds himself single and ready to shag again! However, when Dr. Evil (Myers) goes back in time to steal Austin’s mojo, he winds up unable to perform.

The solution? Austin heads back to 1969 to reclaim his mojo. There he pairs with American agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) and works both to stop Dr. Evil’s nefarious plans and to get the zing in his schwing

While I enjoyed the original, I rarely found much of Shagged to be witty or amusing. I've now seen the film a handful of times. I came away from my theatrical viewing surprised at how unfunny the film was, but I saw it during a very difficult time for me personally, so I was willing to consider that perhaps my emotional state influenced my opinion. (That didn't seem to stop me from enjoying Tarzan later that day, however.)

I also should note that I didn't much like Mystery much when I saw it theatrically. It was only after I watched it on DVD that I started to develop an appreciation for it. While it'll never be at the top of my list, I think it's a pretty good and consistently funny little movie. The question stood: would history repeat itself when I viewed Shagged a second time?

Nope – nor did any greater appreciation develop during third or fourth screenings, either. If anything, I found the movie to be even less amusing during the additional viewings. It's not so much that there's nothing in the film that works; it's just that moments that do succeed get undermined quickly by useless repetition.

Two examples of that: the scene in which Fat Bastard discusses his desire to eat babies and eventually breaks into the Chili's baby back ribs song. That was pretty funny, but the filmmakers lacked the restraint to let the moment end; we have to see Fat Bastard pummel us with the gag by singing, "Chili's - baby back ribs!" We didn't need that. We already got the joke - the additional line killed a decent gag.

A similar occurrence happens when Dr. Evil has trouble with his revolving chair. It goes out of control and at one point he says that they'll need a young priest and an old priest. I thought that was a fairly subtle and clever Exorcist gag and laughed.

Unfortunately, the next two lines are "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!" Again, this seems completely unnecessary and it ruins a good bit for me.

It felt ike they felt that had to hammer us over the head to make sure we didn't miss the joke. On its own, the "power of Christ" bit would have been good, just as the priest line would have worked well; combined, however, they become redundant and spoil the humor.

I find Shagged simply to have a tremendously forced feeling about it. The first film worked because it was so small and unassuming in many ways. It was clear that no one thought the movie would do anything at the box office, so the filmmakers didn't have to worry about pleasing any particular audience; they could do what they wanted to do.

With Shagged, however, they faced huge expectations after the relative success of the first film. Instead of dealing with those expectations by doing something original and creative, though, they decided to give the people more of the same but make it louder and more insistent.

It doesn't work. I don't know - maybe others found it entertaining to see the same jokes repeated from the first movie, but I didn't like it. For instance, I enjoyed Dr. Evil's "shhh!" bit in Mystery, as did many other folks.

Sadly, the filmmakers make a pathetic attempt to recapture this by having Evil do this same gag except with "zip it" as his phrase instead of "shhh!" If that isn't bad enough - and it’s pretty bad - they further pummel us by doing the "shhh!" joke itself later in the movie! Didn't anyone involved have any sense of creativity?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the few new elements of Shagged that I most enjoy. Mini-Me is a clever and fun creation, and Verne Troyer offers a nicely underplayed performance as the little fellow.

Fat Bastard exists mainly as another way for Mike Myers to monopolize screen time, but despite the gimmickry, he's a pretty entertaining character, and one of the few elements of this movie that doesn't get done to death. Probably because of the complicated nature of fitting Myers into that fat suit, Fat Bastard doesn't spend too much time on screen.

Some additional entertainment value comes from the film's cameos. I love Elvis Costello, so although his part – again - simply replicates a fun piece from the first movie, I like Elvis so I won't complain. Tim Robbins also turns in a terrific bit as the president; he's one of the few sparks I find in this film.

Probably the best new aspect of this film comes from the most surprising source: Rob Lowe's dead-on impression of Robert Wagner's Number Two. He captures Wagner's spirit and personality perfectly and seemingly effortlessly; Lowe is so dead-on that when I first saw the movie, it took me a while to figure out if the voice we heard was actually Lowe's or if they dubbed in Wagner's speech for his lines. It's all Lowe, though, and it's terrific.

I wish I could offer similar applause for Heather Graham's work as Austin's new love interest, Felicity Shagwell. Graham’s a babe, and she actually can act, as evidence by her work in Boogie Nights. You wouldn't know that from her performance here, however.

As was the case with Lost in Space, Graham seems to match her acting to the level of the material involved, and that's pretty low in this instance. She looks great throughout the movie but she seems plastic and flat. Liz Hurley was equally gorgeous in the first film, but at least she managed to add some spark to her role. Graham remains a sexy disappointment.

"Disappointment" is a good word to cover about everything involved with Shagged. The filmmakers could have used the success of the first movie to operate from a position of power and do something really creative and entertaining, but they took the safe route and opted to simple duplicate everything that got a laugh the first time.

Admittedly, a lot of people liked this movie and many even preferred it to the original. Well, that's their problem. Shagged isn't a complete disaster; it's watchable from start to finish. I just couldn't help but feel sadness at what it could – and should - have been.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The transfer was satisfying but not great.

For the most part, the movie exhibited good sharpness. A bit of softness crept into some shots, but these instances remained reasonably negligible. No issues with moiré effects or jagged edges occurred, and I noticed no edge enhancement. Source flaws were minor. Grain was a bit heavier than expected, and I saw a couple of specks, but that was it.

Colors were a great strength of the first film's transfer, and while they're good here, they didn't approach the "eye-popping" level on display with that effort. Hues consistently looked positive but seemed more subdued and not quite as bold. Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity. All of this added up to a “B” presentation.

I felt the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack of Shagged worked well. For the most part, the audio image remained biased toward the front channels. Rear usage was pretty good when it occurred - some nice split surround effects popped up during the movie's climax - but these occasions weren’t terribly infrequent. Still, they added a lot to certain parts of the flick, and they gave the movie extra pizzazz.

I had no issues with the quality of the audio. Dialogue sounded natural, while effects seemed realistic and clear. Bass response was quite good, especially during louder sequences like the rocket launch. Music came across as full-bodied and rich. The track lacked the consistent zip to enter “A” level, but it was still quite good.

How did the picture and audio of this Blu-ray compare to those of the original DVD? Audio showed more pep, and visuals seemed tighter and more vivid. This became a satisfying upgrade.

All of the extras originally appeared on the old DVD. First up comes an audio commentary from director Jay Roach, actor/co-producer/co-writer Mike Myers, and co-writer Mike McCullers. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at cast and performances, story/characters and issues related to making a sequel, sets and locations, music, effects, influences, and connected areas.

While the commentary for International Man of Mystery could be a bit dry, this one proves to be livelier. The three participants interact in a fun way, with good wisecracks from Myers along the way. The track mixes fun and facts in a satisfying manner.

Behind the Scenes of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me lasts for 26 minutes, 18 seconds and acts as a nice complement to the commentary. It includes notes from Myers, Roach, producer Joe Lyons, choreographer Marguerite Derricks, costume designer Deena Appel, production designer Rusty Smith, and actors Rebecca Romijn, Heather Graham, Elvis Costello, Burt Bachrach, Jerry Springer, Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner, Rob Lowe, Seth Green, and Michael York.

The show looks at influences, aspects of the story, cast and characters, choreography and costumes, set design, and a few other production areas. Obviously, it's not an exhaustive piece, but the show offers a good look at the way things worked on the set. As with the commentary, it's not tremendously informative, but it's a good watch nonetheless.

Originally an Easter egg on the old DVD, the Blu-ray features Comedy Central Presents “The Doctor Evil Story”. It runs 20 minutes, 10 seconds and works as a faux documentary under the "Spyography" banner. Robert Culp hosts the piece and it features interviews with most of the main characters in the film. The program's very funny and creative; I found it to be more enjoyable than the movie itself. (It didn't hurt that the show was 70 minutes shorter.) It's a very pleasant addition to this disc.

Also interesting are the 21 deleted scenes included on the disc. Most of these are pretty brief; as a whole, the 21 clips only amount to 18 minutes, 59 seconds of screentime. Still, they're pretty funny and entertaining – surprisingly so, given my general dislike of the film itself.

It's anyone's guess how they decided what to keep and what to toss; I saw little logical reason why many of these scenes didn't make the cut. The segments can be accessed individually or run back-to-back via “Play All”.

Three trailers for Shagged appear. Two of these are the teaser trailers – the ones that refer to Star Wars - and they are nearly identical; they differ only in the closing lines that Dr. Evil utters. The full-length trailer is completely different and quite entertaining.

Four music videos show up as well. We see Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger", Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman", Mel B's "Word Up" and Dr. Evil/Mini-Me’s “Just the Two of Us”. Amazingly, almost no footage from the film pops up in the videos; the "Word Up" clip uses a few seconds of outer space shots, but that's it.

That doesn't mean that the film tie-in isn't exploited, however. Indeed, each video features characters from the movie performing in the clip. It's pretty clear that a hierarchical system is on display here: Madonna gets Myers as Austin, Kravitz gets Graham, while Mel Bmerits only Troyer's Mini-Me.

Not surprisingly, Madonna's clip is easily the best of the bunch. It's a pretty good song and although the level of Madonna/Austin interaction isn't too high - much of the video consists of Maddy performing as Austin watches and reacts - it's still a lot of fun. Kravitz's piece isn't terribly special except for some rather, um, exciting shots of Graham gyrating to the music. Granted, late 90s Graham would be sexy making toast, but her actions here make the video well worth watching. (And again... and again... and again...)

While I do love the Spice Girls, Mel's clip is something of a dog. Forget the merits (or lack thereof) of her cover of "Word Up"; it's not bad, but it's not very good, either. However, the video is inane and dopey. Oh well - Mel should be happy she was included at all, I suppose. “Just the Two of Us” simply takes the scene from the movie and presents it on its own, so it’s not especially useful.

Of the three Austin Powers movies, The Spy Who Shagged Me remains easily the least interesting. While I don’t think the others are classic, they provide more wit than this somewhat forced flick. The Blu-ray provides good picture and audio as well as a satisfying set of supplements. This is a nice release but the film itself still doesn’t do much for me.

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME