Movie Info
Movie Name: Wayne’s World
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Genre(s): Comedy
Release Date(s): February 14, 1992
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Excellent?
Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) are best friends and hosts of one of the most popular public access TV shows in Aurora, Illinois. When Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe) picks Wayne’s World for a regular broadcast show. Now, Wayne and Garth are living the big life, and Wayne has a new love in Cassandra (Tia Carrere). The big time might be too much for Wayne and Garth and even their friendship could be in jeopardy as Benjamin tries to take control of the show they created.
Directed by Penelope Spheeris, Wayne’s World was one of the first Saturday Night Live spin-off films (The Blues Brothers in 1980 was the first). It became the most successful SNL films to date and had a big cultural influence.
He’s a snake…
Wayne’s World showed Mike Myers’ ability to put phrases and saying into popular culture. The movie is loaded with tons of quotes that people of a certain age still quote (on a somewhat regular basis). Many of the lingo in the movie came from the SNL skit, but the movie’s big impact really popularized it. “Schwing”, “That’s what she said”, and the just the classic “NOT” were repeated all over my school when the movie was released, and I still hear people say a lot of quotes from the movie (myself included)…Myers repeated this feat when he released Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997.
What makes Wayne’s World so quotable is that the actors in the movie really sell it. From the headliners of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey who just seem to be Wayne and Garth (Carvey even suffered jaw pain from Garth’s overbite) to newcomer Tia Carrere, the actors just seem to have fun and the movie is timed perfectly. The movie helped serve as a comeback role for Rob Lowe who had recently suffered his unfortunate video “blunder” and also featured great appearances from Lara Flynn Boyle, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chris Farley, and Ed O’Neill. The movie also had a great cameo by Alice Cooper (Mila-wa-kay) and Robert Patrick who played his T-1000 Terminator 2 role from the previous year.
We’re going to do it our way!!!
The movie also incorporated some great music. The movie had come contemporary songs from the time but I liked the throw backs like Wayne and Garth’s trip to Shotz Brewery and Laverne and Shirley’s intro revisited, plus the classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene…which angered Dana Carvey because they used the take where he obviously didn’t know the lyrics…I think that is endearing to his character however. Plus the get another classic line “Staircase Denied!” when those famous opening notes are strummed.
I love Wayne’s World. I was the right age when it was released and much like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (which I also was the right age for), it touched a chord. Wayne’s World is a comedy classic and I could watch it over and over again (probably even more so than Austin Powers). Wayne’s World was followed by the less funny Wayne’s World 2 in 1993.
