Now that Austin Powers is a highly successful franchise, the great opening numbers might not translate into quite so much money in the pockets of Mike Myers and the producers. While the first film was sort of a low-budget spoof with few shots more complicated than the opening dance number, Goldmember sports a lavish and absolutely hysterical opening sequence that must have required some real production muscle. Give Myers credit for respecting and caring for his shagadelic franchise enough to keep investing in it.

In this Monday-morning-after-opening review, I’m not revealing anything too top secret if I give away a few of those details. Don’t be late to the theater if you plan to add to the box office take of Goldmember. Though the whole film features scenes, jokes and moments that are absolutely hysterical, there is nothing in the film as funny as the opening sequence.

Myers says that Austin Powers was inspired by his father’s love of the British spy spoofs, especially the films of Michael Caine. (Austin’s glasses are just like Harry Palmer’s, one of Caine’s swingin ‘60s characters.) But, Goldmember is a specific James Bond allusion, and Bond films always kick off with a spectacular sequence. It is a sign of how the Austin Powers series has become a cult to be reckoned with that, though the James Bond franchise protectors initially sued to prevent the use of the name Goldmember as an infringement on their copywright, in the end a deal was worked out.

Austin Powers is a joke everyone wants to be in on. A car, a motorcycle, a helicopter and a big explosion — all undoubtedly expensive to coordinate — play a part in the opening sequence that pays homage to Bond and mocks Mission Impossible. But the real juice from the opening comes from the Hollywood A-list cameos: Steven, Tom, Gwyneth, Kevin and Danny.

Tom and Steven look ever so slightly like deer with their eyes caught in the headlights, which just makes it even funnier. Now that the numbers are in, I’m sure they are thanking their spin doctors for getting them involved. It shows what good sports they are, to be sure. But there is just a whiff in their performances that suggests that somewhere in their minds, as the cameras roll, they are thinking, “What the hell am I doing here?”

As in previous Austin Powers films, there is very little effort made towards plot. As the crew at Dr. Evil’s lair ho-hums, first he was frozen and then he was in space. Now he’s back and ready to conquer the world. Dr. Evil spends some time away in prison in Goldmember, which inspires one of the funniest gags: a rap song with Dr. Evil talking the talk just like every other video gangsta littering MTV.

Goldmember is stuffed with so many characters and bits that there is little room for plot. Myers plays four characters: Austin, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard and Goldmember. The truly gross quotient is split between Fat Bastard, who isn’t quite as repulsive as before, and Goldmember, who isn’t much of a villain but rather just an accumulation of highly unappetizing tics and traits.

In place of plot, there is a theme — the strife between fathers and sons. The evil side of the equation allows Dr. Evil to shamelessly play his son Scotty, the horribly underused Seth Green, against his clone, Mini Me (Verne Troyer). Because this is broad farcical comedy, Mini Me can be treated like a baby or a pit bull, depending on the scene. None of the demeaning things done to him in the film seem as inappropriate as watching the many promotional interviews with him, which take on a truly absurd tone whenever the interviewer tries to fit Troyer’s part into the politically correct landscape of broadcast television. The man is dropped from a snuggly and reeled in on a leash! Listening to Kate Couric (the most groveling and smoochy of them all. She got her cameo!) speak in serious tones about what a life-changing opportunity this has been for him and how it must be opening a lot of doors is funnier than anything he does in the movie.

On the good side of the equation, Austin tries to reconcile with his father Nigel, Michael Caine. Daddy wasn’t around enough for little Austin. The Harry Potter-inflected flashback to Austin’s school days is especially funny. I wish Goldmember had offered Austin and Nigel more screen time, because neither were around enough. They make quite a funny pair, bad hair and teeth and all.

The chick in this installment is Foxxy Cleopatra played by Beonce Knowles of the group Destiny’s Child. Foxxy comes to the present from the ‘70s with Austin to avenge her partner and to prove that the outfits ladies wore in blaxploitation films of the past are less ridiculous than the tacky outfits they wear in pop groups today. Destiny’s Child is such a feast of bad taste and bad music it is a relief to see that when Knowles is released from that kitsch, she fits nicely into other kitsch. I would gladly go to a Mike Myers-produced spin-off spoof of The Adventures of Foxxy Cleopatra.” They keep making spoofs featuring African American men, why not a film for the ladies?