The story follows Austin Powers (Mike Myers) and his assistant, Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham), back to the sixties to again stop Dr. Evil (also Mike Myers) from taking over the world. This time, however, Dr. Evil has stolen Austin’s ‘mojo’ and, alas, Austin is unable to shag! Apparently, he has also lost the power to be funny.

Those that have seen the first “Austin Powers” movie will squirm as Myers hopelessly recycles the jokes that made the first movie so memorable. Between scenes, the camera often zooms directly onto Myers’ face as he repeats formerly successful lines (“Oh, behave!”). Also, the presence of so many celebrities and sponsors made it seem as if Myers has sold out to commercial interests.

It would be unfair if I didn’t applaud Myers for coming up with characters such as Fat Bastard, Ivana Humpalot and Mini-Me, but even these characters couldn’t save this one. Sequels must not be his bag, baby.

The movie redeems itself with a star-studded soundtrack, which features artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, Green Day, R.E.M. and Melanie G. (a.k.a. Scary Spice, for those of you that didn’t do your homework).

The disc features a smooth combination of both classic musicians (The Who, Quincy Jones, Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach) and modern musicians covering classic tunes (Lenny Kravitz’s “American Woman” and Melanie G.’s “Word Up”).

And really, who could resist Dr. Evil covering Will Smith’s “Just The Two Of Us”?