Wayne's World Reviews

Honestly, it has been a while since I have seen this flick but when I was a kid, it was pretty much a classic. Indeed, I watched it many times and I thought it was just really hilarious. It is rather funny that this movie was so popular among young French teenagers since we missed many jokes based on American pop-culture and we had actually never heard of Saturday Night Live and we had no idea that this movie was based on a popular skit on this show. In fact, it is probably the only movie based on a Saturday Night Live skit which turned out to be so successful (in fact, ‘The Blues Brothers’ became also a cult-classic but it is still the only Saturday Night Live spin-off movie to date that has grossed over $100 million). I should re-watch it at some point, maybe I will find it completely stupid and boring but, at the time, I thought it was pretty funny. At the time, it was Mike Myers’ acting debut and he has been quite successful also with Austin Powers but ‘The Love Guru’ was a major failure and the guy hasn’t done anything much since then. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I think it is a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look.

"Let me bring you up to speed. My name is Wayne Campbell. I live in Aurora, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago - excellent. I've had plenty of jo-jobs; nothing I'd call a career. Let me put it this way: I have an extensive collection of nametags and hairnets. Ok, so I still live with my parents, which I admit is bogus and sad. However I do have a cable access show, and I still know how to party. But what I'd really like is to do Wayne's World for a living. It might happen. Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt."

Over the years, the popular American television program Saturday Night Live (SNL) has helped to launch the film careers of countless comedians and comedy writers, including Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, and tonnes more. In the late '80s and early '90s, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey got their big break on SNL, and the roles they portrayed on the show functioned as the basis for the 1992 film Wayne's World. In this day and age, the notion of a movie inspired by Saturday Night Live sketches is groan-worthy due to more misses than hits, yet Wayne's World stands as one of the best SNL feature films. It's also one of those films that was purely and simply made for fun, and should not be critically analysed too closely. Sure, Wayne's World is largely predictable and it delivers more of a succession of vignettes than an actual story, but the characters are endearing and the film is a consistent delight due to a terrific mix of physical and verbal comedy.

In the film, Wayne (Myers) and his slightly insecure best friend Garth (Carvey) produce, co-host and broadcast a youth-culture chat show entitled Wayne's World on local public access television. Filmed in Wayne's parent's basement, the duration of the show is spent discussing women, music, the latest goofy inventions and whatever else may be on the hosts' minds. Soon, a slimy Chicago television executive named Benjamin (Lowe) discovers the show and wishes to exploit it; hiring the boys to feature in a big-budget network television version to use it as a promotional tool for a Chicago-area arcade. This causes the show to lose touch with its audience, however, and triggers a degree of friction between Wayne and Garth. Added to this, Benjamin takes an interest in Wayne's new rock star girlfriend Cassandra (Carrere), and begins pursuing her with promises of fame and fortune.

Wayne's World is infectiously funny at times, with the energetic performances of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey always ensuring the film is enjoyable despite the occasional lulls in pace. The overzealous efforts of the two lead performers additionally reflect the absurdity of the movie and its meandering plot. From time to time, the two directly address the audience and break the fourth wall; highlighting that the movie is indeed meant to be taken with a grain and salt, and that one should view the film with the understanding that its absurdity and irrelevancy is key to its success. As a matter of fact, in some of the best scenes, the movie pokes fun at its own contrived nature, with subtitles such as "Oscar Clip" and "Gratuitous Sex Scene". To round out the film and to further demonstrate the wink-and-nod approach, a trio of different endings are played out one after the other, each of which is bursting with intentionally obvious clichés.

Similar to many parody movies, Wayne's World contains moments which poke light-hearted and at times scintillating fun at the popular culture of its time. However, with so many years having passed since its theatrical release in 1992, a number of these jokes will provoke fewer laughs since the timeliness has evaporated. Thankfully, though, Wayne's World contains a solid selection of timeless lampooning as well. Among the best and most enduring moments features Wayne and Garth condemning Hollywood's sell-out mentality and pointing out the wrongs of product placement while gleefully placing Pizza Hut pizza, cans of Pepsi, and other assorted products directly in front of the camera. They even incorporate the classic, overly-enthusiastic salesmanship smile into the segment. Meanwhile, another memorable scene depicts Wayne, Garth and their crew singing along to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody in a car. It has zero impact on the plot, but it's great.

Mike Myers and Dana Carvey are perfect for the roles of Wayne and Garth. In top comedic form, the two actors managed to add depth to characters that could have easily been shallow caricatures. As a result of their amiable nature, Wayne and Garth emerge as people you want to spend time with, and their troubles become your concerns. Their performances also remind us of a time when the actors were both relevant and funny (i.e. before Myers committed career suicide with The Love Guru and countless Shrek sequels, and before Carvey faded into obscurity). It's fortunate that the duo is so good, too, because the remainder of the performances are merely adequate. Rob Lowe is fine as the sleazy television executive, but is never in the same comedic league as Myers and Carvey. Meanwhile, Tia Carrere (star of such critically disclaimed but fun action films as Showdown in Little Tokyo) is somewhat strong as Cassandra, but is nonetheless disposable.

To the credit of those behind Wayne's World, the movie never feels like a Saturday Night Live skit dragged out to feature-length proportions (this is more than what can be said for other SNL features). Thanks to the brilliant scripting and a delightful comic energy, the film possesses an identity separate from its television counterpart. It's not in the same league as The Blues Brothers (let's face it, not much is) and it's nothing substantial (it is fluff), but it's still eminently watchable, funny and quotable. This is high praise indeed for a film of modest origins that's comprised of a meandering series of vignettes loosely tied together by a generic plot. Wayne's World never tries to be anything more than the sum of its parts, and that's good enough.

7.3/10