Entertainment
Why The World’s Greatest Parody Franchise Needs To Die
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
A few days ago, we got a deeply unexpected blast from the past. Mike Myers reprised his role as Dr. Evil, the Austin Powers villain, for a Verizon commercial. The commercial was relatively entertaining as far as corporate slop goes, with fun appearances by fellow Austin alumni like Seth Green. While the ad did a great job for advertising a phone company, it also made many people yearn for the cinematic return of Austin Powers. After all, we’re living in a golden age of reboots and revivals, so it does feel downright strange that Myers’ superspy hasn’t been on the big screen in nearly a quarter of a century.
Myers himself stoked that speculation when he made an appearance on Trevor Noah’s World Cup Watch Party. There, a fan who had recently seen the Verizon commercial asked the obvious question: “Are we ever going to see an Austin Powers 4?” To this, Myers surprisingly said “yes,” but gave no other details. This has caused a tizzy among fans and even franchise actors like Clint Howard, all of whom would love to see the franchise continue. However, as someone who absolutely mainlined this series back in the day, I can confidently say that Myers needs to do what Dr. Evil never could: kill Austin Powers off and let this beloved franchise die.
Somehow, Dr. Evil Returned
Looking at this Verizon commercial, it’s not hard to see why many people want an Austin Powers 4. For one thing, Mike Myers hasn’t lost a step with his Dr. Evil character. In fact, he’s easily the most energetic actor onscreen, which is more apparent when he acts alongside a nearly sedated Seth Green. And, of course, the over-the-top evil lair thing is particularly amusing to those of us who grew up watching Superfriends. Of course, that’s a big part of the problem: to be perfectly blunt, the main people who would enjoy another Austin Powers movie were the ones enjoying these films decades ago and all have one foot firmly in the grave.
For an Austin Powers 4 to be very successful (like The Spy Who Shagged Me, which earned $312 million against a $33 million budget), it would need to appeal to a younger demographic. This worked in the ‘90s, when teens were happy to watch movies making fun of James Bond, their dad’s favorite Boomer action franchise. Now, studios are lucky if younger audiences show up to a movie at all, and if they do, it’s because it came from someone with a pre-established YouTube presence like Curry Barker and Kane Parsons. Does anyone think they’ll turn out for a movie making fun of Bond, who hasn’t had a new movie in half a decade?
The Jokes Got Stale
Another reason the Austin Powers franchise needs to die is that, even back in the day, the jokes were getting stale. It didn’t take the movies long to run out of gags that took the piss out of 007, so they just started throwing weird stuff at the wall to see what stuck. This included giving Dr. Evil a weird midget twin (played by the late, great Verne Troyer) and coming up with increasingly bizarre stuff for Mike Myers to do. Like, the whole joke with Fat Bastard is that he’s fat and nasty. A real laugh riot, right? If this was Austin Powers at its prime, I shudder to think what a decades-too-late fourth movie would look like.
Plus, the whole strength of Austin Powers’ humor comes from the fact that it’s a parody. But good parodies are hard to make, and good parody revivals are nearly impossible (just look at the latest Scary Movie). On top of that, the parody doesn’t work anymore because Austin Powers was designed to make fun of the lighter-hearted 007 movies, like the ones starring Roger Moore. Starting with Casino Royale, the Bond franchise pivoted to being deadly serious specifically because Austin Powers had made all the super spy stuff so silly. Arguably, it’s now that much harder to make a parody of a Bond franchise that only sneers and never smiles.
Even Nostalgia Goes Bad Over Time
Again, I’m not writing this as a hater. Back in the day, I quoted the Austin Powers movies religiously and enjoyed them for the spot-on Bond parodies and over-the-top performances. But a revival would be completely doomed: it will turn off younger audiences who don’t care about its geriatric cast or its 007 jokes, and it will turn off older audiences who expect something other than recycled humor that hasn’t been funny since Bill Clinton was in office. Sure, the diehard superfans will show up, but here’s a bleak truth: like Disney found out with The Mandalorian and Grogu, a handful of diehards aren’t enough to make your movie a success.
Right now, the Austin Powers movies can stay safely ensconced in the warm embrace of our collective nostalgia. Were many of the jokes dated, problematic, and even outright unfunny? Sure, but that’s not what we remember. We remember the funny lines, the hilarious reveals, and the spot-on parodies of James Bond, and we should keep it that way. The movies are a record of what was funny back in the late ‘90s, but a fourth film would be a disaster for one final reason: they’d remind us of exactly how stupid our sense of humor was back when the World Wide Web was young!
Entertainment
NYT Pips hints, answers for June 20, 2026
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.
Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we’ve shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you’ll run into across the difficulty levels:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for June 20 Pips
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed horizontally.
Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically; 0-3, placed horizontally.
Less Than (5): Everything in this space must be less than 5. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for June 20 Pips
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-5, placed vertically; 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 3-5, placed vertically.
Mashable Top Stories
Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally; 4-1, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed vertically.
Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally; 6-0, placed horizontally.
Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for June 20 Pips
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 3-2, placed horizontally.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 3-1, placed vertically; 0-6, placed horizontally.
Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 5-4, placed vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically; 1-4, placed vertically.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally.
Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally; 1-4, placed vertically.
Less Than (7): Everything in this space must be less than 7. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically; 1-2, placed vertically.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 1-2, placed vertically.
Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-0, placed horizontally.
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 3-0, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (9): Everything in this space must be greater than 9. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically; 3-6, placed vertically.
Greater Than (10): Everything in this space must be greater than 10. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 6-1, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 6-1, placed horizontally.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Nothing cancels CMF Phone Pro 2 successor due to rising RAM costs
The sky-high cost of RAM has claimed another victim: budget smartphones. The cofounder of Nothing company, Akis Evangelidis, recently took to X to announce that there will be no successor to last year’s popular CMF Phone 2 Pro, a credible iPhone competitor that launched for just $279 and won plaudits up and down the tech world for its design and budget-friendly pricing.
Nor was Evangelidis shy about naming the problem: “We were working on a successor, but with memory prices where they are right now, we can’t build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF.”
If you’re totally oblivious about what he’s alluding to, check out this series of charts from PCPartPicker, detailing the rise in RAM costs over just the last 18 months. Two standout examples: a basic 2x8GB configuration of DDR4 RAM went for about $50 in January of 2025 and now sells for over $150 in June of 2026, while a more speedy 2x16GB configuration of DDR5 RAM went for under $100 in January of 2025 and today costs close to $500!
Mashable Light Speed
And while RAM is the most talked-about culprit behind the price spikes, solid-state storage (SSDs), the kind used in mobile phones, high-end gaming computers, and consoles, has also shot up dramatically in price, currently priced at 20 times the equivalent hard disk drive (HDD).
The driver of these price hikes is the AI revolution currently underway across the entire tech space, as deep-pocketed companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet (parent company of Google) are projected to spend some $700-$900 billion per year on AI-related infrastructure, growing to as much as $1.6 trillion in 2031, according to reporting from Goldman Sachs.
Unfortunately, because chip makers and RAM suppliers are seriously constrained in their production capacity, this newfound demand has created a bidding war, with budget smartphone shoppers and trillion-dollar tech companies all competing for the same finite supply of materials. The result, at least in the near term, will be not only the abolition of budget smartphones like the CMF Phone 2 Pro, but also inevitable price hikes for compute-heavy devices like smartphones, tablets, and personal computers that are already quite expensive. Apple’s outgoing CEO Tim Cook said these developments are “unavoidable.“
What is a budget-savvy shopper to do in 2026? The best solution for the time being might be to hold on to your old phone, tablet, or computer for as long as possible.
Entertainment
The Underrated Dark Thriller With The Best Action Star Ever Is Streaming For Free
By Steven Nelson
| Published
Step into a world where action meets drama as you queue up 2017’s The Foreigner, featuring none other than the martial arts maestro, Jackie Chan. In this intense thriller, Chan sheds his typically cheerful on-screen persona to deliver a performance that’s riddled with depth, showcasing a grieving father’s relentless pursuit of justice.
Directed by Martin Campbell, the man behind iconic James Bond films, The Foreigner is a gripping tale that unfolds against a backdrop of political intrigue and explosive action sequences. If you’re ready for a side of Jackie Chan you’ve rarely seen, this film promises an exhilarating ride.
A Chilling Revenge Arc
The Foreigner, starring the legendary Jackie Chan, is a riveting action thriller that revolves around the character of Ngoc Minh Quan, a humble London-based businessman with a haunting past. Quan’s world is turned upside down when his teenage daughter, Fan, is killed in a politically-motivated terrorist bombing. Devastated by his loss, Quan embarks on a relentless pursuit of justice, vowing to bring those responsible to account.
As Quan digs deeper, he discovers that the bombing is linked to a group of rogue Irish terrorists. He targets Liam Hennessy (played by Pierce Brosnan), a government official with former ties to the terrorists, believing him to hold the key to the identities of the bombers. Quan’s quest for vengeance takes him into a shadowy world of political conspiracy, power struggles, and hidden agendas.
Quan employs his skills, honed during his time as a special forces operative in the Vietnam War, to uncover the truth. He faces numerous obstacles and challenges as he unravels a complex web of intrigue involving British and Northern Irish politics, all while Hennessy struggles to manage political tensions and maintain his own grip on power.
The film’s narrative is imbued with themes of revenge, redemption, and the moral complexities of justice. Jackie Chan delivers a poignant and compelling performance, portraying a man driven by grief, grappling with loss, and seeking closure, while Pierce Brosnan excellently embodies the role of a conflicted and morally ambiguous politician.
A Hard-Hitting Blend Of Action And Drama
The Foreigner succeeds because it balances explosive action with a surprisingly emotional story. The film keeps the tension high throughout, blending political intrigue, revenge, and suspense while giving its lead character far more depth than audiences might expect from a traditional action thriller.
Critics gave the film a mixed-to-positive reception, and it currently holds a 66 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Much of the praise centered on the lead performance, which traded familiar action-comedy beats for a more restrained and dramatic approach. While some reviewers felt the political plotlines occasionally became overly complicated, many appreciated the film’s willingness to pair hard-hitting action with genuine emotional weight.
Fans were even more receptive, embracing the combination of intense set pieces, gripping drama, and a darker, more mature tone than viewers were expecting. The result is an underrated thriller that delivers both as an action movie and as a story about grief, vengeance, and the personal cost of pursuing justice.
For anybody looking for a tense, well-crafted thriller with strong performances and plenty of action, The Foreigner remains an easy recommendation.
As of this writing, The Foreigner is streaming for free on Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and The CW.
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