A side note. AUTOLOAD is already unreasonable. The only place I expect to find that is in code like Class::Delegation and Win32::OLE where the total of methods cannot be known during compile time.

When I consider this: an object only uses method call syntax when inheritance is intended to be at work. If the author of the subclassed module didn't intend for the _method to be overrideable then it wouldn't be called with -> method syntax. If you intend to call _method and define it privately then you ought to be calling it as _method( $self ... ). Alternatively, if you want to use inheritance internally for your private methods then you have to be explicit about the package: $self->Foo::Bar::_method( ... ).