Grade: B-

Verdict: Myers has the Midas touch.

Details: Mike Myers, Michael Caine and Beyoncé Knowles. Directed by Jay Roach. Rated PG-13 for sexual innuendo and incessant bathroom humor. One hour, 30 minutes.

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Review: The idea of an Austin Powers movie has always seemed funnier than the movie itself. Happily, that's not the case with "Austin Powers in Goldmember." Though it abounds with prurient (and repetitive) schoolboy humor, this third installment in the further adventures of the yellow-toothed spy with a Swinging '60s mojo and a psychedelic soul is funny. It's a goofball blimp in which flatulence jokes alternate with some inspired satire — and boasts the cleverest opening scene of the year.

The reason this picture works better than its predecessors is that Myers is no longer simply spoofing the mini-mod-madness of '60s spy movies. Besides, James Coburn did it better in his "Our Man Flint" series over 30 years ago.

But now, Myers has established a kind of Austin Powers mythos. We know Dr. Evil and Mini Me and Number 2 and Fat Bastard. We expect certain catch-phrases and the shagadelic jokes, the Bond-beautiful women and Austin's oily-but-lovable "Oh, behave!" persona.

The trappings are still intact, from Austin's ruffled Paul Revere and the Raiders shirts to his impish, British Invasion bravado. But there's also a father-son theme that you can tell will be pursued in the next movie, as well a family-is-good message that soundly trumps the one in Disney's "Lilo & Stitch."

This time, Austin (Myers) must rescue his father, the debonair spymaster Sir Nigel Powers (Michael Caine), from the fiendish Goldmember (also Myers). To catch one bad guy he must, à la "The Silence of the Lambs," seek the help of another. It's Dr. Evil (also Myers) who, along with his devoted gnome-like alter ego, Mini Me (Verne Troyer), has been locked up in the Georgia State Penitentiary. (Thanks, Mike!)

Goldmember has stashed Sir Nigel in his happening roller disco, Studio 69, circa 1975. Austin still has "issues" about his father — Nigel has a habit of not showing up at graduations and award ceremonies — but, following Dr. Evil's advice, he dutifully time-travels to his rescue.

Austin teams up with an ultrafoxy secret agent, Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé Knowles of the R&B band Destiny's Child), and together they pursue Goldmember and Sir Nigel back to the future, i.e., 2002. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil escapes from jail and undertakes a fiendish plan to destroy the world. Again. Unless, of course, he's paid not to.

Myers knows his audience. He fills the film with the requisite bathroom jokes, penis jokes, sumo-sized jockstrap jokes. And Goldmember, a gross-out take on Gert Frobe, the original Goldfinger, has a nauseating habit of eating his own flaked-off skin.

Balancing the dumb gags are some very funny bits. There are a raft of Big Star cameos. Dr. Evil and Mini Me lead a chorus line of hardened criminals in a customized take on rapper Jay-Z's "Hard Rock Life," itself based on the song from the musical "Annie." And Caine has possibly the best line in the movie when he tells one of Dr. Evil's menacing flunkies, "Do you know how many anonymous henchman I've killed over the years?"

As always, Caine brings a touch of class to whatever he's doing and it's a measure of Myers' smarts to cast him in the first place. The rest of the cast are like a repertory ensemble. They play off each other beautifully (though four of "they" is Myers...) and seem to be having a hell of a good time. Knowles doesn't have much to do but her smashing good looks and concert-groomed camera ease suggests she could have a few movie roles ahead of her.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution