Wayne's World

Wayne's World (1992)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Penelope Spheeris

Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Tia Carrere, Rob Lowe, Brian Doyle-Murray

From: Paramount

Apparently the origin of “That's What She Said.”

Viewing this last night was a last minute decision; I am unsure why it has taken me many years to revisit a movie I saw at least a few times when I was a kid & Saturday Night Live was actually funny. SNL I enjoyed seeing in the early to mid 90's... after that I lost interest and nothing in the 21st century has made me want to see the show. Eventually I'll view last month's Eddie Murphy episode via streaming but otherwise, I'll be happy to avoid a show I've heard many bad things about when it comes to recent output... and the fact that head writer Michael Che has such fragile feelings, he freaks out at ANY online criticism and becomes obsessed over them (look up what writer Jack Allison said about the situation; he became one of Che's targets)... why even spend a second worrying about such a lame property?

Anyhow, during the 90's SNL tried to make movies based off of various characters that sometimes appeared in 5 to 10 minute long sketches. Understandably, trying to make feature length films based off of figures that were only seen in short bits... many of those pictures were not that good. Thankfully, here they managed to craft a story about two slackers who did a public access show in the basement of Wayne's parents in Aurora & have it about a rich jerk trying to purchase the show & make it commercial so he could plug his row of arcades to “the kids”... that manages to work, along with giving Wayne a love interest in Tia Carrere (schwing!) and Garth has a blonde lady to lust over. Most importantly, this is meant as fun; often the characters talk to the camera & break the fourth wall.

I'll admit nostalgia plays a part in me giving this a high rating; it was a movie I thought was pretty funny as a child and as an adult uncomfortably close to 40, it still made me laugh. As juvenile as it can get (after all, I had no memory that there was a there are also astute potshots at crass commercialism. Wayne and Garth are easy characters to root for, and both Brian Doyle-Murray and Rob Lowe are tremendous as sleazy SOB's. The cast as a whole is quality: famous faces in small roles like Lara Flynn Boyle, Chris Farley, Meat Loaf, Ed O'Neill, Ione Skye, etc. to Carrere as a cool rock singer and an unforgettable Alice Cooper cameo. No surprise with director Penelope Spheeris that there's a rock score, and a good one.


It's unfortunate that Mike Myers was difficult on set and did not get along with Spheeris (there's a reason why Myers hasn't done too many movies in the past 10 or so years... he is always a nightmare to deal with) as Wayne's World 2 is a major step down from this-as I'll talk about in a review one day-and this movie was enough of a success to make the goofy AMC Pacer automobile a cult favorite and was one of the reasons why Bohemian Rhapsody was popular again in '92. I understand those that don't love this like I do, especially if it was first watched in these modern times or you do not get some of the references to products or ideas from the time. Me, I am relieved this has not aged poorly and in fact brought back some nice memories.