Mike Myers’ Austin Powers series has likely surpassed all expectations for movie success. But with this, the third installment, the series is starting to look a little worn out and the filmmakers appear to be running out of ideas.

For his sexy sidekick Myers recruited Destiny’s Child’s Beyoncé Knowles to play Foxy Cleopatra. Surprisingly, her spunk and energy makes her a better match for Myers than Heather Graham, who was in the second film. Knowles is very natural in front of the camera and she has a playful presence that goes along perfectly with Myers’ goofy Powers character. I really liked the way she delivers her "I’m a whole lotta woman" line. Still, neither Knowles nor Graham is a match for Elizabeth Hurley’s performance in the first film, which makes me wonder why they didn’t simply keep her in all the films as they have done for the bulk of the other characters.

And, yes, the rest of the cast is back including Robert Wagner as Number Two, Mindy Sterling as Frau Farbissina, Verne Troyer as Mini-Me, and, of course, Mike Myers as a handful of characters including Fat Bastard (introduced in the second film), Dr. Evil (who has been in all three), and the newly created Goldmember (a Dutchman aptly named for his modified private parts).

The story -- if you can call it that -- is about Dr. Evil and Goldmember in a plot to destroy the world. No real surprise here; that’s essentially what they’re all about. But the story is not the reason we come to see these films and the filmmakers know that. What we come to see is Myers play Powers and his cast of characters to the max -- the same reason that we go to The Nutty Professor films to see Eddie Murphy play the Klumps. And for the most part, he delivers.

As usual, the Powers character is hilarious and he delivers the bulk of the successful laughs. Fat Bastard and Dr. Evil tie for a close second, although I’m sure to some the gross-out humor of Fat Bastard would put him into last. Goldmember, though, is largely a flop, with only a couple of good lines and a largely forgettable appearance.

Overall, it’s a lot of hit-and-miss gags with even more of a slant toward toilet humor than the first two films. What’s more, there’s not much original here. Except for a humorous look back to Powers and Evil as youths, it’s mainly just a rehash of ideas that worked well before. That makes Goldmember appear more or less like simply an extension of the first and second films.

I laughed fairly regularly throughout the film -- and that makes it worth seeing -- but it’s just too uneven to recommend all that highly. Unless they can find something new to do to really resurrect this series, I hope they leave it as a reasonably successful trilogy and simply call it a day. Austin Powers in Goldmember gets a **1/2 rating.

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