Wayne's World

Recently I revisited the pair of movies by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, based on their Saturday Night Live sketches.  I recall we really enjoyed the first one when it came out, and were “eh, not so much” impressed by the second one.  After some time, and spate of similar films by Myers over the years, I decided to reanalyze them.

 First off, I did like the original SNL sketches, which established the characters, their catch phrases: 1) negating a sentence by simply adding “NOT” at the end, after a dramatic pause; 2) contradicting a “no way” with a “way”; 3) indicating immediate and embarrassing arousal to a female by “scwhing”; 4) humiliating less cool guests (usually older adults, teachers, etc.) by asking them “a [unpleasant word] says what?”; and 5) indicating an improbable outcome is as likely as “monkeys might fly out of my butt.”  I also liked the cameos, like Aerosmith.  Wayne: “No way!” Joe Perry: “Way!”  Or their “top 10 reasons” they were bummed about the fall of communism, which included “Katarina Witt no longer ‘forbidden fruit’”.  Overall, fairly consistent quality, but to translate an SNL sketch to a full movie was not an obvious idea.  

 But they pulled it off.

 Wayne’s World (1992).  Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) lives in Aurora, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago – he lives with his parents.  His best friend is Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), a shy, nerdy guy who is basically Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson.  His show comes to the attention of Benjamin (Rob Lowe) who angles to take it over, in cahoots with a sponsor, Noah (Brian Doyle Murray, Bill Murray’s brother).  Myers also befriends Cassandra (Tia Carrere), a babacious bassist with local band Crucial Taunt. 

            Eventually Myers chafes at the requirements of honoring sponsor commitments (similar to Burt Reynolds’ bristling at fast food promotion in “Stroker Ace”) and is even more disturbed by Benjamin’s obvious designs on Cassandra, under the auspices of assisting her musical career.  Along the way Wayne and Garth meet Alice Cooper backstage at a concert in Milwaukee (thank you for the history lesson, Alice). 

            The movie is wrapped up whimsically and arbitrarily (but not completely implausibly) to the heroes’ benefit.  And there was much rejoicing.

            High points?

            A.         “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Garth’s Pacer.

            B.         Ed O’Neill as the grumpy Stan Mikita chef.

            C.         “Stairway” & other guitar in-jokes.

            D.         Alice Cooper cameo

            E.         “Laverne & Shirley” montage in Milwaukee

As I said, now having seen “Love Guru” and three “Austin Powers” films, Myers’ “aren’t I funny?” style has long worn thin.  Here’s it’s certainly in abundance, but back then we hadn’t yet maxxed out on it.  Bottom line: the charm has worn off, but it’s still a classic.

Wayne’s World 2 (1993).  Wayne now has his own place (some sort of loft in a building).  Garth pursues a new “mystery woman” (Kim Basinger).  In a very hokily conjured plot, Wayne has mystic dreams of Jim Morrison telling him to stage a music festival, “Waynestock”, including Aerosmith and many others.  Needless to say, even with the help of a Tommy Chong-like English roadie, Del, this whole project is far beyond Wayne’s non-existent skills as a promoter.  To make matters worse, he has a new competitor for Cassandra’s affections: Bobby (Christopher Walken), a slick record mogul who is wise to Wayne’s petty “a sphincter says what?” jokes. 

Yet again, however, the day is saved by mere plot contrivance (“you didn’t think we’d end the movie like that, did you?”) but here the outcome is far more implausible than the first movie’s.  Is it as good as the first one?  Not a chance.  Does it blow chunks?  Not really.  Worth watching if you have any positive inclination towards the first one.