O uter space. The sound of heavy breathing. A chair occupied by an unseen figure.

“Years ago,” begins a portentous voiceover, “a battle was fought and an Empire was destroyed. Now, the saga will continue.”

The chair spins around.

“You were expecting someone else?”

From that first image of Dr Evil sat where we’d all assumed Darth Vader would be, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me – which turns 20 today – was on an unlikely crash course to success.

“I’ll tell you what really blew the sequel open – the moment we thought, ‘we’re onto something here’ – was when Mike Myers came up with the idea of that teaser trailer that looked like Star Wars,” Jay Roach, the film’s director, tells The Independent.

Most films would have balked at the idea of arriving in the same summer that George Lucas’s space saga was scheduled to return after 13 years. Not Austin Powers 2. In fact, Myers’s decision to riff on the fact that audiences were clearly more excited about seeing Episode I – The Phantom Menace is precisely what put the film on people’s radars. “If you see one movie this summer, see Star Wars,” the narration went. “If you see a second, see Austin Powers.” The result was a viral sensation that created the kind of hype film studios only dream of.

“The people at Lucasfilm were really flattered by the tribute,” Roach recalls.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me teaser trailer

The film was the sequel to International Man of Mystery, which on its release in 1997 didn’t exactly set the world alight. It amassed a modest $53m and debuted at No 2 in the North American box office behind Kurt Russell thriller Breakdown. Over the following year, word of mouth spread like wildfire as the film’s quotable dialogue (“Yeah, baby, yeah!”; “Danger’s my middle name”) entered the public consciousness. As a result, the film found a bigger audience at home than it ever did in the cinema. Simply put: without the advent of DVD, The Spy Who Shagged Me wouldn’t have existed.

“None of us had any expectations,” remembers Seth Green, who plays Dr Evil’s son, Scott Evil, in all three films. “The first movie was a very independent film that had trouble getting financed. It was out very briefly in theatres and didn’t perform that well. But thanks to home video, people saw it and the film started to develop a life of its own.

When sitting down to discuss a potential follow-up, Myers and co-writer Michael McCullers decided that if they were to revisit the groovy world Austin inhabits, they had to amp things up. Roach had the same thought.

“We decided to pull out all the stops and be as crazy and silly as a sequel should be,” says Roach, whose credits also include Meet the Parents (2000) and The Campaign (2012). “We knew we had to top it somehow so we decided to go larger on the spectacle, the widescreen look and, of course, the James Bond references.”

They clearly succeeded. In 2014, Daniel Craig said that the Austin Powers franchise was the reason his 007 films were more serious in tone than in the Pierce Brosnan era. “We had to destroy the myth because Mike Myers f***ed us.”

It was a new lease of confidence, not to mention a doubled budget of $33m, that enabled the trio to flesh out the first film’s memorable sequences on a much larger scale. A brief moment from International Man of Mystery – Austin and agent Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) walking around naked as everyday items block their genitalia – was revisited for the sequel’s grand opening. This time, instead of a hotel room, a clothes-free Austin finds himself strutting around in public. At one point, we see him barge in on a banquet, and in one long take, the camera tracks him walking the length of the table as its contents – including a fruit platter and large portion of beef brisket – cover his bits. It’s a hilarious and brilliantly executed shot, but for Roach, it was a tough day at the office.

45 films you never realised were banned Show all 46 1 /46 45 films you never realised were banned 45 films you never realised were banned 45 films you never knew realised were banned Click through the gallery 45 films you never realised were banned All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) The ban on All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was ordered in Germany by Adolf Hitler himself who disliked its anti-war message. This came after an initial run during which members of the Nazi Party disrupted screenings by releasing mice into the cinema and, at one stage, attacking Jewish audience members. Censors in Austria, Australia, Italy and France also banned the film in the early 1930s. Universal Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned American Sniper (2015) Many might find Clint Eastwood's American Sniper (2015) to be something of an insult, but Iran banned the war drama – based on the life of the US military's deadliest marksman – for being just that. Censors deemed it "offensive" to its nation. Warner Bros Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Apocalypse Now (1979) The anti-war sentiment present in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now saw the film banned under President Park Chung-hee's regime in 1979. United Artists 45 films you never realised were banned Argo (2012) Ben Affleck's Best Picture-winning 2012 drama Argo was banned in Iran due to its negative portrayal of the country. Warner Bros Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Battleship Potemkin (1925) Finnish censors believed that Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 Soviet silent film Battleship Potemkin would incite a Communist revolution, so gave the film an outright ban. Goskino 45 films you never realised were banned Beauty and the Beast (2017) Disney's live-action remake of its 1991 classic was banned in Kuwait due to homosexual references involving the character LeFou (Josh Gad). It evaded a ban in Russia after being slapped with a 16+ age certificate and in Malaysia after having the references cut altogether. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Ben-Hur (1959) China banned William Wyler's religious epic Ben-Hur in 1959 under the regime of Mao Zedong for containing "propaganda of superstitious beliefs, namely Christianity". While most films go on to have their ban lifted, the country has never given the Oscar-winner permission to be shown. Loew's, Inc 45 films you never realised were banned Borat (2006) It turns out there are some people who don't find Sacha Baron Cohen that funny, notably officials in all Arab countries (except Lebanon) who banned his 2006 comedy Borat for being "too offensive". 20th Century Fox 45 films you never realised were banned Brief Encounter (1945) Officials in the Catholic country of Ireland found David Lean's romantic drama Brief Encounter to be too accepting of adultery to be shown in cinemas. Eagle-Lion Distributors 45 films you never realised were banned Brokeback Mountain (2005) The homosexual relationship at the centre of Ang Lee's 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain saw the film banned in all Arab countries bar Lebanon, where it was released in a censored format. Focus Features 45 films you never realised were banned Child 44 (2015) The number of banned films in North Korea runs pretty high, but an unexpected feature on the list is the Tom Hardy-starring Child 44 (2015). Countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus all followed suit. Summit Entertainment Lionsgate 45 films you never realised were banned Christopher Robin (2018) Censors in China denied the release of Disney's Christopher Robin in 2008 because the character of Winnie the Pooh has become a symbol of resistance against the country’s ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick met a lot of opposition with A Clockwork Orange in 1971. While the film was never banned outright in the UK (it was withdrawn at the director's request after his family received death threats because of it), it wasn't shown in cinemas in Ireland, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea due to its depictions of violence and gang rape. It wasn't screened in the UK until after Kubrick's death in 1999. Warner Bros 45 films you never realised were banned The Da Vinci Code (2006) The high-profile adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was banned in (take a deep breath) China, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa and Solomon Islands due to content deemed blasphemous. Columbia Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned The Danish Girl (2015) The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper's film inspired by the life of transgender painter Lili Elbe, was banned in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Malaysia on grounds of "moral depravity" in 2015. Universal Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Deadpool (2016) After it was decided that Deadpool couldn't be edited without affecting its plot, Chinese officials initially banned the film citing explicit content. Uzbekistan followed suit as the film "violated the country's societal norms", while it received heavy editing in order to be shown in India. 20th Century Fox 45 films you never realised were banned The Death of Stalin (2017) Armando Iannucci's 2017 comedy The Death of Stalin failed to make the cut in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan because of its perceived anti-Soviet theme. eOne Films 45 films you never realised were banned The Departed (2006) Martin Scorsese's crime thriller The Departed hit a nerve with China in 2006 thanks to a line of dialogue that suggested its government intends to use nuclear weapons on Taiwan, a sensitive issue for the country. The ban has never been lifted. Warner Bros 45 films you never realised were banned District 9 (2009) District 9, Neill Blomkamp's science-fiction film from 2009, was slapped with a ban in Nigeria due to accusations of being xenophobic and racist towards its citizens. TriStar Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) The adaptation of EL James's erotic drama Fifty Shades of Grey may not have been as raunchy as some were hoping, but it was considered too explicit for audiences in Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe. Universal Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Funny Girl (1968) William Wyler's romantic musical Funny Girl was banned in Egypt because its male lead Omar Sharif – an Egyptian Muslim – is shown in a romantic storyline with the Jewish Barbra Streisand, who was vocal in her political support for Israel at the height of military tensions with Egypt in 1968. Columbia Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Ghostbusters (2016) Paul Feig's all-female reboot of Ghostbusters was denied a release in China due to censorship laws prohibiting the promotion of cults and superstitions. Not even changing the title to Super Power Dare-to-Die Team (yes, really) could help its cause. Columbia Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Goldfinger (1964) Sean Connery's third film as British spy James Bond, Goldfinger (1964), had been released in Israel for six weeks when it was revealed that one of its main actors, Gert Fröbe, had a Nazi past. It had the ban lifted when a Jewish survivor came forward with the revelation that his life and his mother's were probably saved after being hidden from the Nazis by Fröbe. United Artists 45 films you never realised were banned The Hunger Games (2012) The country of Vietnam deemed the numerous murders shown in blockbuster The Hunger Games too violent for teenage audiences and decided to slap the film with an outright ban. Lionsgate Films 45 films you never realised were banned Jules and Jim (1962) François Truffaut's beloved French drama Jules and Jim found itself at the centre of a ban in Italy for its "attitudes toward sex". The ban was quickly lifted. Gala 45 films you never realised were banned Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) Not many people enjoyed 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but the cinema censors in Cambodia sit top of that list. Thanks to the moment that sees the film's antagonist working from a lair in a Cambodian temple, the Colin Firth action film was handed an indefinite ban. 20th Century Fox 45 films you never realised were banned Mad Max (1979) It was a particularly gory death scene that saw Australian thriller Mad Max (1979) banned from being seen in New Zealand as it unintentionally mirrored an incident with a real gang shortly before it was released. The same scene saw the film banned in Sweden until 2005. Roadshow Film Distributors 45 films you never realised were banned Milk (2008) Milk, Gus Van Sant's 2008 Oscar-winning biopic about gay rights activist and US politician Harvey Milk, was initially banned in Samoa with no reason given, though it was eventually revealed the film had been deemed "inappropriate and contradictory to Christian beliefs and Samoan culture" for its depiction of homosexuality. Focus Features 45 films you never realised were banned Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) The religious satire featured in Monty Python's Life of Brian was considered blasphemous in countries including Ireland, South Africa and Norway. Director Terry Jones used the controversy to the film's advantage, putting up posters in Sweden with the tagline: "So funny, it was banned in Norway!" Cinema International Corporation 45 films you never realised were banned Modern Times (1936) Charlie Chaplin's classic 1936 film Modern Times was banned in Nazi Germany for advocating Communism. United Artists 45 films you never realised were banned Noah (2014) Darren Aronofsky's biblical drama Noah (2014) found itself the subject of a ban in China, as well as several Muslim countries, because it was perceived to contradict the teachings of Islam. Paramount Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Pulp Fiction (1994) Malaysia disregarded Pulp Fiction for release and banned the Quentin Tarantino film scenes featuring drug abuse, explicit nudity and sexual violence. Miramax Films 45 films you never realised were banned Rambo (2008) Sylvester Stallone's return as Rambo in 2008 – which he also directed – was deemed offensive by censors in of Burma who opposed the way the film depicted its country's soldiers. Lionsgate 45 films you never realised were banned Sausage Party (2016) Officials in China were so worried that adults would assume animated film Sausage Party (2016) to be a children's film that they slapped it with an outright ban. On the flip side, France gave the film a 12-rating. Sony Pictures Releasing 45 films you never realised were banned Sex and the City 2 (2010) It's a wonder the first film of HBO series Sex and the City wasn't banned in Vietnam considering the critically-maligned sequel – released in 2010 – was prohibited there due to a "conflict of cultural values". Warner Bros Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Shrek 2 (2004) Although brief, the ban on 2004 sequel Shrek 2 was incurred in Israel due to the Hebrew dub added to the film ahead of release. A particular joke aimed at Israeli singer David D'Or's high voice prompted the musician to take legal action, halting the film from being released until its removal. DreamWorks Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned The Simpsons Movie (2007) The Simpsons Movie was banned in Burma due to the "juxtaposition of the colours yellow and red", which is considered to convey support for rebel groups in the country. 20th Century Fox 45 films you never realised were banned South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) Trey Parker and Matt Stone ruffled plenty of feathers with their big-screen South Park film, Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and the comedic depiction of Saddam Hussein saw it banned in Iraq. The duo's 2004 film Team America: World Police would later be banned by North Korea for its comedic depiction of Kim Jong-Il. Warner Bros 45 films you never realised were banned 300 (2006) Iran didn't take too kindly to Zack Snyder's depiction of the Persian military in his 2006 film 300. Warner Bros Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned 2012 (2009) North Korea suppressed 2012 from release in 2009 because the film depicted what the government considered to be an important year for the nation in a negative light (it coincided with its first leader Kim Il-Sung's 100th birthday). According to reports, several people were arrested for viewing imported copies of the disaster film and were charged with "grave provocation against the development of the state". Columbia Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Despite permitting other Martin Scorsese films to make the cut, countries including Malaysia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Kenya banned The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) for its profanities and depiction of sex and intense drug use. Paramount Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Wonder Woman (2017) Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot's past in the Israeli army sparked a campaign to boycott the DC film in Lebanon due to conflict with both countries. The 2017 film was later banned there as well as Qatar and Tunisia. Warner Bros Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) Censors in Trinidad banned Kevin Smith's 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno out of fear that teenagers would mimic the plot and make their own porn movies. The Weinstein Company 45 films you never realised were banned Zoolander (2001) Ben Stiller's 2001 comedy Zoolander was deemed "unsuitable" for release in Malaysia due to its negative depiction of the country. Shockingly, Iran also banned the film over its perceived support of gay rights. Paramount Pictures 45 films you never realised were banned Any film featuring Claire Danes Claire Danes' honesty regarding her time working in Manila came with a price. After telling Premiere Magazine the country "smelled like cockroaches", the council passed a motion to ban the Homeland star from the city and prevent her films from being shown. Although Danes issued an apology, Manila said they will lift the ban when they are "satisfied". 20th Century Fox

“That was the night my wife [Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs] had a scheduled C-section of our second child,” he says, laughing. “We knew I was going to be up against it and I kept watching the monitor going, ‘That one’s close, that one’s close.’ The 13th take, though, was fantastic, but Mike was looking at me, unsure. I was like, ‘Mike, I’ve got to go. My wife is literally about to have a C-section. If you want to shoot some more, it’s all set up for you. I don’t mind.’ So I took off in a car and my son was born a little while later.”

But which take made it into the film?

“Mike kept shooting a few more, but it was my take that we ended up using. Lucky number 13.”

The majority of the original cast returned for the sequel, some in a far smaller capacity. Hurley returned for a single scene, as did Will Ferrell, who played the invincible henchman Mustafa. With Hurley out, Heather Graham came in as Felicity Shagwell. Based on Jill St John’s Bond girl Tiffany Case from Diamonds Are Forever (1971), her character remains a franchise highlight. Take the scene in which she dances with Myers to Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello’s street performance of “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” – it’s surprisingly tender.

Costello and Bacharach, the latter of whom had a role in the first film, were just two of the famous faces wanted for the sequel. International Man of Mystery had several terrific cameos (Christian Slater, Tom Arnold and Carrie Fisher) and The Spy Who Shagged Me went on to enlist the services of Tim Robbins, Woody Harrelson, Rebecca Romijn, Kristen Johnson and Rob Lowe, who played a young version of Dr Evil’s aptly named second-in-command, Number Two. Madonna and Lenny Kravitz even agreed to release the songs “Beautiful Stranger” and “American Woman” as part of the film’s soundtrack.

“That’s one of the great things about making a sequel; people want to jump in,” Roach says. “Those who showed up to play with us were a tribute to Mike.”

Heather Graham and Mike Myers’ dance scene in ‘Austin Powers 2’ (New Line Cinema)

No cameo is more memorable, though, than Jerry Springer's. The presenter’s scene – a send-up of his talk show – came in the form of an actual episode of The Jerry Springer Show with the topic: “My father is evil and wants to take over the world.” Naturally, Myers’ bald-headed baddie had a starring role. But within minutes of Dr Evil’s arrival, the episode descends into chaos and ends with Springer brawling with the guest.

“I wondered if Jerry would go for it because we’re clearly making fun of his circus act,” Roach says. “He not only went for it, but he was fully enthusiastic and completely convincing when he started punching Mike. Having a break in style like that is really fun because it defies expectations.”

The scene was designed as a counterpart to one from the first film in which Dr Evil attends family therapy with Scott. For Green, it was the perfect way to assimilate back into the world of these characters, as well as to reintroduce fans to their unconventional father-and-son double act.

“Reacting outrageously on that show was a great showcase for Scott Evil, who is the most confused, hurt and traumatised kid,” the actor tells me. “He just wants a loving relationship with his awful dad. I really had a lot of fun with getting to play that solemn, angry teen in front of a booing audience.”

This scene is Green’s highlight, if only because it features one of his favourite lines in the film.

“Mike had just watched a documentary about the trial of gangster John Gotti and there was a bit in it where he started screaming as an insult, ‘You were born in your mother’s ass.’ Mike decided to turn it into something Dr Evil said when he starts attacking Jerry Springer. It’s so funny because up to that point, he’s so refined and then he suddenly starts flailing his arms and screaming that insult. It’s just so silly.”

Their duo would become a trio in The Spy Who Shagged Me thanks to Verne Troyer’s Mini-Me. Introduced in the sequel as Dr Evil’s clone – “except one eighth [his] size” – the character is positioned as Scott’s nemesis from the moment they meet. The whole film sees a silent Mini-Me either pranking Scott or trying to press the button that’ll send him plummeting into a fiery pit below Dr Evil's lair. Roach reflects on his time working with Troyer, who died in April 2018.

“The Mini-Me stuff was such a blast to film. Verne was so fantastic at playing him. He had great ideas all the time and, even in complicated situations like handling a tiny hairless cat, he could take the character and deliver all that fantastic animosity to Scott Evil. I miss Verne so much.”

Mini-Me wasn’t the only new character thrown into the mix; there was also Fat Bastard. In recent years, the character – an overweight assassin who spends an entire scene trying to “eat” Mini-Me – has fallen out of favour with some fans who argue that the film directly links his appearance with the negative traits he possesses. However, in 1999, the character was given the thumbs up. What makes this more interesting is the fact the first film – a far tamer, if raunchier, affair – struggled to generate positive feedback from test audiences ahead of its release.

Mike Myers and Verne Troyer, who died in April last year (New Line Cinema)

“The first movie never tested well,” Roach says. “It never got above a 55, which is so low. There was scepticism. People had expectations of Mike Myers, because of SNL and Wayne’s World – not everybody was going along with this idea of the bad teeth, hairy body and taking the piss out of Bond. But by the time we tested the second one, it was the opposite problem. They were so quick to embrace it that we actually had trouble figuring out what they liked! It seemed they were laughing at everything.”

The Spy Who Shagged Me tested around the 90 mark immediately, leaving Myers and company with the task of rifling through the footage to discern what should make the final cut. One of the most challenging things to get correct was the film’s time-travel element. Roach admits it became such a headache that they enlisted the services of Basil Exposition (Michael York) – a character usually designed to dump information onto the audience – for a scene that sees him break the fourth wall to instruct the viewer to “enjoy” themselves rather than boggle their brains trying to figure out if the time travel made sense.

“When you’re going back in time and making some adjustment in the history that could break the space-time continuum, you better have it airtight,” Roach says. “So instead of that, we got Michael York to explain it to the audience so they didn’t have to worry about it anymore. That was from testing the idea over and over and thinking we better have a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card with this time-travel business.”

Myers once told Rolling Stone that hearing the Dusty Springfield song “The Look of Love” is what led to the creation of Austin Powers specifically. He described the song as “the national anthem of libido”. However, it was while he was in the process of bringing the character to life that he decided to create Powers in tribute to the British comedy – Peter Sellers, Monty Python – that Myers watched growing up with his father, Eric, who died of Alzheimer’s in 1991.

His father’s memory loomed large over the set of the sequel. Graham told Rolling Stone how the actor would share anecdotes about his father as a way of dealing with the pain he so clearly felt from his loss. “They were heartbreaking and if anyone else had told them, you would be devastated. I don’t know how he made that subject matter funny.”

Unsurprisingly, Myers would often have crew and fellow cast members in hysterics – sometimes while cameras were rolling.

The 65 best movie insults of all time Show all 65 1 /65 The 65 best movie insults of all time The 65 best movie insults of all time Avengers Assemble (2012) "This is my bargain, you mewling quim." Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) "Hey, where'd you get those clothes, the toilet store?" DreamWorks Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) "How could you sleep with Fat Bastard? No, I mean, literally, how could you do it? He's so fat, the sheer mechanics of it are mind-boggling." New Line Cinema The 65 best movie insults of all time Bad Moms (2016) "Well, you look like a bag of d***s" REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Bad Santa (2003) “You’re an emotional f***ing cripple. Your soul is dogs***. Every single f***ing thing about you is ugly.” REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Blade: Trinity (2004) "You c*ck-juggling thunderc***!" New Line Cinema The 65 best movie insults of all time The Breakfast Club (1985) "Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?" Universal Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) "If staying here means working within 10 yards of you, frankly, I'd rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse." Universal Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Bull Durham (1988) "From what I hear, you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a f***ing boat." Orion Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Burn After Reading (2008) "I have a drinking problem? F*** you, Peck. Compared to you we all have a drinking problem." Macall Polay The 65 best movie insults of all time The Campaign (2012) "You know what the difference between your momma and a washing machine is? When I dump a load in a machine, the machine doesn't follow me around for three weeks." Warner Bros Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Casino (1995) "You horse manure smelling motherf***er, you." Universal Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time The Cat in the Hat (2003) "Do you know how hard it is telling people we’re related?" DreamWorks Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Closer (2004) "Go f*** yourself, you WRITER!" Columbia Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Clueless (1995) "You’re a virgin and you can’t drive." Paramount Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Con Air (1997) "You're somewhere between a cockroach and that white stuff that accumulates at the corner of your mouth when you're really thirsty." Buena Vista Pictures Distribution The 65 best movie insults of all time The Death of Stalin (2017) "You smell like rendered horse, you burning a**hole." eOne Films The 65 best movie insults of all time Donnie Darko (2001) "You can go suck a f***." Pandora Cinema The 65 best movie insults of all time Duck Soup (1933) "He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you – he really is an idiot." Paramount Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Easy A (2010) "Don't you think it's a little strange that your boyfriend is 22-years-old and still in high school?" Screen Gems The 65 best movie insults of all time Erin Brockovich (2000) "That's all you got, lady - two wrong feet and f***ing ugly shoes." Columbia Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Escape Plan (2013) "You hit like a vegetarian" The 65 best movie insults of all time The Favourite (2018) "You look like a badger." Fox Searchlight Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time A Fish Called Wanda (1988) "To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people." The 65 best movie insults of all time Full Metal Jacket (1987) "You climb like old people f***, Private Pile." Columbia–Cannon–Warner The 65 best movie insults of all time Gangs of New York (2002) “I don’t give a tuppeny f*** about your moral conundrum, you meat-headed s*** sack.” Miramax Films The 65 best movie insults of all time Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) "You're in more dire need of a blowjob than any white man in history" Buena Vista Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time The Hangover (2009) "You are literally too stupid to insult." Warner Bros. Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time His Girl Friday (1940) "Listen, you insignificant, square-toed, pimple-headed spy!" Columbia Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Home Alone (1990) "You're what the French call: 'les incompetents'." DON SMETZER/20TH CENTURY FOX/The Kobal Collection/WireImage.com The 65 best movie insults of all time In Bruges (2008) "YOU'RE AN INANIMATE F***ING OBJECT!" Universal Studios/Focus Features The 65 best movie insults of all time In the Loop (2009) "Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up your a*** with a lubricated horse c***." IFC Films The 65 best movie insults of all time Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) "I should have had you wear double condoms. Well, we shouldn't have done it in the first place, but if you ever do it again, which as a favour to women everywhere, you should not, but if you do, you should be wearing condom on condom, and then wrap it in electrical tape. You should just walk around always inside a great big condom because you are s***!" CBS Films The 65 best movie insults of all time Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) Perry: "Look up 'idiot' in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?" Harry: "A picture of me?" Perry: "No! The definition of the word idiot, which you f***ing are." REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Knocked Up "Your face looks like Robin Williams' knuckles.” The 65 best movie insults of all time The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) "Were you always this stupid or did you take lessons?" The 65 best movie insults of all time The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) "My great aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102 and when she'd been dead three days, she looked better than you do now." Warner Bros. The 65 best movie insults of all time Matilda (1996) "Your mummy is a TWIT." TriStar Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time The Mist (2007) “I’ll tell you what. The day I need a friend like you, I’ll just have myself a little squat and s*** one out.” REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." EMI Films The 65 best movie insults of all time National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, d***less, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey s*** he is." The 65 best movie insults of all time Parenthood (1989) "I wouldn't live with you if the world were flooded with piss and you lived in a tree." Universal Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Phantom Thread (2018) "Are you a special agent sent here to ruin my evening and possibly my entire life?" REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Point Break (1991) "You're a real blue flame special, aren't you, son? Young, dumb and full of cum. What I don't know is how you got assigned here. Guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage, huh?" REX The 65 best movie insults of all time The Princess Bride (1987) "I'll explain and I'll use small words so that you'll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon." Vestron Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Roxanne (1987) "Is that your nose or did a bus park on your face?" REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Say Anything (1989) "I got a question: if you guys know so much about women, how come you're here on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?" The 65 best movie insults of all time Scarface (1983) "Even if I were blind, desperate, starved and begging for it on a desert island, you'd be the last thing I'd ever f***." Universal Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time School of Rock (2004) "You're tacky and I hate you" The 65 best movie insults of all time Sexy Beast (2000) "You're the f***ing problem you f***ing Dr White honkin' jam-rag f***ing spunk-bubble!" REX The 65 best movie insults of all time She's All That (1999) "To everyone here who matters, you're spam. You're vapour. A waste of perfectly good yearbook space." Miramax Films The 65 best movie insults of all time Short Circuit (1986) "Hey laser-lips, your mother was a snowblower." REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Shrek (2000) "You dense, irritating, miniature beast of a burden." REX The 65 best movie insults of all time The Silence of the Lambs (1991) “You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?" Orion Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) "Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder." 20th Century Fox The 65 best movie insults of all time Step Brothers (2008) "You're not a doctor. You're a big fat curly headed f***." REX The 65 best movie insults of all time There Will Be Blood (2007) "You're just the afterbirth, Eli, slithered out on your mother's filth. They should have put you in glass jar on a mantelpiece." Paramount Vantage/Miramax Films The 65 best movie insults of all time Three Amigos (1986) "You dirt-eating piece of slime. You scum-sucking pig. You son of a motherless goat." Orion Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Toy Story (1995) "You are a sad strange little man, and you have my pity." Buena Vista Pictures Distribution The 65 best movie insults of all time Wayne's World (1992) "Benjamin is nobody's friend. If Benjamin were an ice cream flavour, he'd be pralines and d***." Paramount Pictures The 65 best movie insults of all time Whiplash (2014) "You are a worthless, friendless, piece of shit whose mommy left daddy when she figured out he wasn't Eugene O'Neill, and who is now weeping and slobbering all over my drum set like a f***ing nine-year old girl." REX The 65 best movie insults of all time The Witches of Eastwick (1987) "In the short time we've been together, you have demonstrated every loathsome characteristic of the male personality and even discovered a few new ones. You are physically repulsive, intellectually retarded, you're morally reprehensible, vulgar, insensitive, selfish, stupid, you have no taste, a lousy sense of humour and you smell. You're not even interesting enough to make me sick." REX The 65 best movie insults of all time Withnail & I (1987) "Monty, you terrible c***." HandMade Films The 65 best movie insults of all time The Wizard of Oz (1939) "You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk!" Loew's, Inc. The 65 best movie insults of all time The Women (1939) "You wanna see a bad facelift? Helen Danvers, two o'clock. She looks like she's re-entering the Earth's atmosphere." REX

“There was really only one time that he broke me,” Green recalls. “One day, he did this monologue as Dr Evil that got cut from the movie where he was talking about being a child. After a while, he looked me right in the eye and just started to babble nonsense. It destroyed me. He told me later on that he did it on purpose.”

Green devised his own way of ensuring he didn’t laugh during takes.

“It made it easier for me not to laugh if I played Scott like he was in a Lifetime movie – a serious film about a kid who never knew his dad and then finds out he’s a mass murderer. Even though the movie is a comedy, Scott Evil exists in a drama and I always came at it from that place. I always thought it was much funnier.”

Like with most comedies released in the 1990s, some moments – ill-judged racial stereotyping, plus the use of brownface by Ferrell – rankle; even Austin’s most ardent fans would agree that the original trilogy had some jokes that wouldn’t be there should the character return for a fourth outing. For a film about a libidinous spy on the hunt for his missing mojo, though, Austin Powers 2 is nowhere near as smutty as people remember it. It’s a cosy, charming, breathlessly paced adventure whose heart is firmly in the right place. You could, in fact, make a genuine case for calling The Spy Who Shagged Me the greatest comedy sequel of all time.

Not all critics agreed. Antonia Quirke, writing for The Independent, called it “a slight film because it pastiches what was already verging on parody”. She added that the sequel had “nothing comparable in wit” to the jokes featured in the first. However, one surprising champion of the film came in the form of The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, who called it “the most gloriously funny, clever, vulgar and exquisitely non-PC film of 1999” with a “really extraordinary gag-density”.

It was intermittent glowing reviews like Bradshaw’s that were the final cog in ensuring the sequel would achieve a feat nobody could have imagined when Myers first came up with that Star Wars-themed teaser: a worldwide haul of $312m. “The film made more money on its opening weekend than the entire first film’s run,” Roach says, still blown away.

Jay Roach and Mike Myers on the film’s set in 1999 (Rex) (Rex Features)

The last laugh came when it sent The Phantom Menace toppling from the top of the US box office. Its opening weekend sales were more than double that of Episode I’s – not bad for a film whose budget was more than $80m cheaper. A third film – Austin Powers in Goldmember – followed in 2002, but a fourth seems to be, much like its spectacled hero, stuck in time.