The Best and Worst of Mike Myers

“The Best and Worst of” series chronicles the career highlights and lowlights of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week, I take a look at the filmography of “Bohemian Rhapsody” star Mike Myers.

Films starring Mike Myers that I've seen:
Wayne's World
Wayne's World 2
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Shrek
Austin Powers in Goldmember
The Cat in the Hat
Shrek 2
The Love Guru
Inglorious Basterds

Best Performance: Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
They're all about the same in terms of quality,but since I saw the Austin Powers trilogy in reverse order, Goldmember has always been my favorite of the bunch. Powers and Dr.Evil are two of the funniest characters to ever appear on screen and it's a testament to Myers' effortless zaniness, unwavering commitment and tremendous understanding/love of spy movies that they never got old over the course of three movies.

Worst Performance: The Cat in the Hat (2003)
As annoying and unfunny as Myers was in The Love Guru, at least that performance didn't involve the savage butchering of a beloved pop culture icon. He turned the bouncy, lovable Cat in the Hat into pure nightmare fodder that's more unsettling than 99% of the shit I've ever seen in a horror movie, which is about as unforgiveable of a sin as I've ever seen in a movie.          

Best Film: Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Around 2008/2009, Quentin Tarantino's stock had fallen a bit. He had put back-to-back projects that I didn't love (Kill Bill Vol.2, Death Proof) and I had feared that this downturn in quality was going to become the new normal for a director whose work I largely credited with the development of my move obsession. Inglorious Basterds brought me all the way back to full fanboy status. This tense, brutal and darkly funny anti-Nazi revenge movie is one of the most satisfying projects he's ever put out, and helped give way to a stretch of films (Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight) that are pretty much in the same class as his early work.

Worst Film: The Cat in the Hat (2003)
It's hard to concisely put into words just how much of an abomination The Cat in the Hat is. This adaptation of the iconic children's book by the late Dr. Seuss is so strange, scattershot and overwhelmingly creepy that it made me bizarrely romanticize the similarly bad/disturbing Jim Carrey-led live action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.    

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “Overlord” star Wyatt Russell.