Wayne's World

For this month, I will be paying tribute to a late SNL alum who we sadly lost too young and too soon, the late and hilarious Chris Farley. I first saw him in a movie when I was a freshman in High School and I really found him funny. I didn’t know of his drug addiction that caused him to go so soon, so I would like to look at all the films that I saw of his, starting with two of my favorite comedies, the “Wayne’s World” movies.

Mike Myers and impressionist Dana Carvey star as the famous Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar in director Penelope Spheeris’s harmless, childish 1992 intelligent youth comedy based on a Saturday Night Live sketch.

Sadly, they are friends who are 35-year-old slacking teenagers who host and try to promote their heavy-metal late-night public-access cable TV show from Wayne’s parents’ basement in Aurora, Illinois.

Rob Low plays a smooth TV producer named Benjamin Oliver who wants to abuse them, and on their raise to stardom they get to meet famous rockstars Meat Loaf and Alice Cooper.

Derek Winnert said in his review, “The two stars seem to have amusing acts of fairly restricted range, though stand-up comedian Myers, making his feature film debut here back in 1992, looks like a developing talent.” Lowe, in his supporting role, fails to get laughs by playing up his 80s good-looking image as a slimy entrepreneur trying to take over the Wayne’s World TV show.

Winnert asked, “The script is amiable enough but gleefully amateurish and where are the big laughs?” Yet it took $33.5 million on the first 10 days when released and grossed $121.6 million on it theatrical release, making it the tenth highest-grossing film of 1992 and the highest grossing of the 11 films based on Saturday Night Live sketches.

Shot in 34 days, the film also has Tia Carrere (Cassandra), Lara Flynn Boyle, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chris Farley, Ed O’Neil (Ben), Kurt Fuller, Ione Skye and Colleen Camp. Robert Patrick spooks his role in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

The TV sketches and film started catchphrases such as “Schwing” and “Schyea,” along with popularizing “That’s what she said,” “Party On,” “We’re not worthy” and the use of “…Not!” after actually positive sentences.

Wayne, Garth, Cassandra, Glen and Ben sometimes speak directly to the audience and even the cameraman, but no one else seems to notice that they are in a film..Parts of the story are carried by Wayne’s narration to the camera, where he gives his thoughts on what’s happening in the film.

Director Stephen Surjik’s 1993 comedy “Wayne’s World 2” is a less harsh, more friendly and more accomplished sequel to the 1992 “Wayne’s World” however much less popular at the box office.

This time the famous Wayne Campbell hosts the rock concert Waynestock, a sequel to Woodstock, with the help of the spirit of Jim Morrison (Michael A Nickles) and a naked Indian (Larry Sellers) – “If you book them, they will come” – while Garth Algar gets to make love to Honey Hornée (Kim Basinger), who is only doing it because she wants him to kill her husband.

There are as many movie parodies as rock tributes this time, even spoofing “The Graduate” as Wayne runs to the church to the tune of Mrs. Robinson to stop his girlfriend Cassandra Wong from marrying evil pop promoter Bobby Cahn, played by Christopher Walken.

There are plenty of lenient laughs, mainly of recognition, as we add up the parodies (including “Jurassic Park” and “Thelma and Louise”) and have cameos (Charlton Heston as Good Actor, Al Hansen as Bad Actor, Drew Barrymore as Bjergen Kjergen, Heather Locklear as herself, and Jay Leno as Jay Leno). Winnert said, “But there are also a failure to develop individual comedy set pieces much beyond the original gag, a lack of impetus to drive the story along, and a fizzle of a finish.”

As Wayne and Garth, Myers and Carvey seem friendlier, and more focused in their comedy than before, while Walken and Basinger do their welcome moves, but are a bit lost.

Winnert mentioned, “It is all very showbizzy and cosy for a celebration of teenage idiot culture, which may be why it disappointed at the US box office, likeable and amusing though it is.”

It cost $40 million and grossed $48,197,805 in the US, unlike the original which cost $20 million and grossed $121,697,323 in the US.

Also in the cast are Olivia D’Abo, Chris Farley, Ralph Brown, Ed O’Neill, Harry Shearer (the voice of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, Scratchy, Birch Barlow, Marvin Monroe, Herman Hermann, Clancy Bouvier, Eddie, Otto Mann, Rainier Wolfcastle, and Mr. Fisk from "The Simpsons") and James Hong, along with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer from Aerosmith.

These two are really great movies. I did not know they were based on SNL sketches, but I did hear about this movie when I was in High School. One time we had a substitute and the class had to vote to either watch Wayne’s World” or “Remember the Titans,” and “Remember the Titans” won. One student didn’t like that “Remember the Titans” won, he left class. I did hear a few students quote “Wayne’s World” in class, since I knew the famous “Schwing” line, but I never bothered watching both the movies until I was in college. I really enjoyed them. If you haven’t seen these movies, give them a watch because you will like them. The second movie may not be as good as the first one, but it is still good in its own way. Now I know that Chris Farley was only a cameo appearance in these movies, but he was still in them, so it counts.

Look out next week when I review the first movie I saw of Farley’s in “Chris Farley Month.”