My favorite movie has always been The Princess Bride, and no matter what movie I have seen since then, they have never even come close to it. Be it a horror movie, romantic movie, or even a long awaited sequel, it didn’t matter, they simply weren’t The Princess Bride. This week, I saw a movie that – for the first time – is a serious contender to my favorite movie – and it wasn’t Star Wars. It was Austin Powers – The Spy Who Shagged Me.

From the opening scene to the closing credits, I was laughing out loud. There are very few movies that have you laughing out loud and almost every scene and laughing even harder days later when you are quoting those scenes to friends – Austin Powers – The Spy Who Shagged Me is one of those movies.

The movie follows the further adventures of our hero, Austin Powers (Mike Myers) and his arch nemesis, Dr. Evil (also Michael Myers), who, although cryogenically frozen and launched into space at the end of the first movie has somehow managed to escape his frozen tomb. (This is the one and only thing wrong with the movie – they don’t tell you how he escapes.) After which, he returns to his evil lair and finds that Number 2 (Robert Wagner) has kept Dr. Evil’s organization alive with small investments.

It’s this point when we are introduced to the smallest – and biggest – part of the movie – Mini Me. A clone of Dr. Evil that is exactly like him in every way – only one-eighth his size. With six feet of evil crammed into a two-foot body, Mini Me is the perfect companion for Dr. Evil – and the best mini-movie character since R2D2.

As for the larger characters, they were all groovy baby! (I’m sorry…I had to.) I thought the scenes with Dr. Evil were funnier than the ones with Powers, the same way the Joker’s scenes in Batman were more entertaining than his.

The movie in general had it all, a great story, trillions of funny jokes, hundreds of beautiful women, dozens of surprises, two amazing cars – and one fat bastard.

My opinion of the movie? To sort-of quote an ad from Austin Powers, “If you see only one movie this summer, see Austin Powers – The Spy Who Shagged Me. But if you see two movies this summer, see Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.”

Both now playing at a theatre near you.