On one hand, it's nice seeing a bit of Augustus' old self coming through. At least in the sense of knowing juuuuust the right thing to say to get under someone's skin or in their head.

On the other hand, this menacing approach is overshadowed by us - as the audience - knowing how much if a little bitch he actual is and needing Lucy to protect him from punches. It's also bullshit that he also just so happened to know about this Guillermo Del Toro-esque director and enough about the movies to make this kind of jab that only Mike would catch onto. A jab that is a stupid, pointless power move because Augustus is just gonna whimper with his tail between his legs when Lucy goes off on him for "protecting her" when she never fucking wanted it!