Year: 1992
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Country: US
Language: English
"SHWING!"
"She's a Babe
"She's a Robo-Babe. If she were a president she'd be Babe-raham Lincoln
" It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine."
That is my introduction to this review.
Wayne (Mike Myers) is still living at home. He has a world class collection of name tags from jobs he's tried, but he does have his own public access TV show. A local station decides to hire him and his sidekick, Garth (Dana Carvey), to do their show professionally. Unfortunately they clash with "the man" who wants to change the very nature of their wacky program.
Opening with a memorable car scene involving the dimwits headbanging to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Wayne's World is an absolute laugh riot and remains so throughout the runtime. It maintains its humor not by using obscene language or vulgar comedy, but by mixing clever dialogue and tongue-in-cheek sight gags. Who can forget Garth falling in love with a blonde babe & then day dreaming about using Jimi Hendrix' "Foxy Lady" to swoon her or Wayne's quite obvious product placement? "We'll never bow to the sponsors"
It is easy to connect with Wayne and Garth, even at their most goofy. Myers' conversations with the camera not only gives this picture a mocumentary-like feel, but also makes the character's relationship with the audience all the more intimate. We are given a sense that these characters have nothing to hide and only want to party/get babes, but are also complex and full of raw emotion. We either want to be Wayne and Garth or be with them. It's a weird comedy, but all the better for it.
Wayne's World is an innocent entertaining comedy that hits all the right notes. I can't say that it's "great" (after all, it didn't do anything innovative & didn't challenge any convention) but it certainly is a film I'd see more than once. It's a shame Carvey and Myers' careers have gone downhill, but hopefully at least one of them will produce something great in the near future. 3.5/5
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