Wayne's World

In case you have missed the warnings I posted last week, this is the start of movie week here at the machine. Not your usual crappy films, but rather crappy films that relate to hard rock or metal. So first up is........

Wayne's World, 1992

Starring:Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere

Musical cameos:Alice Cooper and his band from the Hey Stoopid album played themselves. Meatloaf as Tiny the bouncer at the Gasworks. Tia Carrere's band Crucial Taunt included Anthony Focx as the drummer who is actually a guitarist and has played with Bang Tango and Beautiful Creatures. Guitarist Marc Ferrari played with Keel and Cold Sweat.

Plot:Wayne and Garth are in danger of having their local cable access show taken over and exploited.

The Good- The film knows it's a goofy comedy and doesn't try to be anything else. This is good because too many music related films just try to do too much and fail to be very good at anything. Wayne's World is one of the very few Saturday Night Live skits that made a good transition to the big screen and I think that comes from not trying to do too much. Dana Carvey was great as Garth, just very funny throughout the whole movie. Alice Cooper was actually very good in his small role. Some good supporting roles as well from Brian Doyle-Murray, Ed O'Neil and Lara Flynn Boyle. The three endings was a perfect ending(s) to this film. The film just fits a lot of off-beat comedy bits into the film. There are a few that don't work, but you don't notice them much because a funny one will come along a minute later and then you do laugh.



The Bad- The soundtrack is overall good, but the old songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, Foxy Lady and Dream Weaver got prime space, but new songs like Black Sabbath's Time Machine and Cinderella's Hot and bothered were just kind of stuffed in where you couldn't hear them. Mike Myer's Wayne wore on me after a while. Not that he was bad, but he always been a bit one dimensionial in all of his skits and that came through after a while. The movie does laugh with the hard rock/metal fans, but it also laughs at them a bit more than it needed to. I realize it's a comedy, but that's the way I felt in 92 and the film still comes across that way at times.


The Ugly- Tia Carrere singing Sweet's the Ballroom blitz. Dear God, she looks great, but sounds like my cat when I accidentally stepped on her tail. It was really painful to listen to (Tia Carrere more than the cat).


Final words- Wayne's World is like the Citizen Kane of rock music films.....Not! Didn't you just know that I was going to work that in somehow?
It's funny, enjoyable and moves along at a nice pace. I got my copy for $7.50 at Wal-mart. Don't bother listening to the commentary with director Penelope Spheeris unless you just want to hear how much she thinks of herself.

Grade: B

Up next will be Rockstar.