The New Mexico native who trained at USC was tapped to helm the 1999 time travel follow-up, "Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me", where secret agent Powers returns to the 1960s only to find that the square sensibilities of his adopted 1990s world have affected his attitude and diminished his appeal. Similar in theme and style to its predecessor, this film was an even more over-the-top affair, super stylized, unabashedly mad and just behind "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" as an eagerly awaited summer film. Released that same year to much less hype was "Mystery, Alaska", also directed by Roach. This compelling story of a quietly scandalous small town and its local hockey team's face off with the New York Rangers was both penned and produced by David E Kelley. Starring Russell Crowe and Mary McCormack, the film was poignantly funny, atmospheric and understated, a far cry from Roach's outrageous "Austin Powers" work, proving the director's versatility.

Roach proved faithful to his franchises, returning for a third go-round with Mike Myers with the sequel "Austin Powers in Goldmember" (2002), which remained pleasingly fresh with the addition of Powers' father Nigel (Michael Caine), '70s superspy Foxy Cleopatra (Beyonce Knowles) and a further exploration of the Dr. Evil-Mini-Me dynamic. The director also successfully revisited his other big-screen enterprise with the sequel "Meet the Fockers" (2004), reuniting with Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro and introducing the proud Focker family in the form of Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. The crowd-pleasing comedy, familiar but with a few fresh elements, demonstrated that Roach was willing to pump creative energy into the usually stale sequel-land, with major payoffs.