The third instalment of the Austin Powers series is a marked improvement on its predecessor and shows there's more mileage yet in the snaggle-toothed sex-bomb.

A splendid opening sequence (nicking the Union Jack parachute from The Spy Who Loved Me) sees our hero despatching a DLT lookalike chopper pilot. What a way to start.

There follows a staggering parade of superstar cameos - whose identities it would be churlish to reveal - before we get to the action proper.

Dr Evil (Myers) and Mini-Me (Verne J Troyer) are locked up in a high-security prison... but not before they've hatched a fiendish plan for world domination.

Teaming up with the notorious Goldmember (think of a Dutch Peter Stringfellow with his shorn locks replaced with a skin complaint), they have kidnapped Austin's beloved old dad, Nigel (Caine).

Austin time-travels back to 1975 in his search for Pop and finds his old flame, the streetwise cop Foxxy Cleopatra (an impressive Knowles), at the legendary Studio 69.

Together they set off to thwart a newly-sprung Dr Evil and Goldmember from succeeding in the their megalomaniac mayhem.

All the tried and trusted joke-generators are present and correct - the sight gags (a memorable silhouetted hospital medical) and the appalling puns that even a Scouse comedian would think twice about.

There's a decent mickey-take of Eminem and a superb Cockney rhyming slang exchange (with subtitles) between Austin and his dad.

Caine also gets one of the best lines - "There are two things that I can't stand. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures. And the Dutch."

Mercifully, the role of the repellent Fat B******d has been reduced, while newcomer Goldmember (also played by Myers) is a far superior comic creation.

Myers and co-writer Michael McCullers favour the scatter-gun approach - if one joke doesn't hit the target then the next one will.

But they also appear to have reined back on the gross-out humour which marred The Spy Who Shagged Me, while working harder on the cartoon characterisation.

At the end of the day, it's Myers' goofy interpretation of Austin which holds the show together. Is it good for another few years? Groovy, maybe.

Tim Evans