Wayne's World (1992)

Wayne's World, party on. Not so much.

I remember being behind the wheel driving some friends during Christmas or reading week break from university. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody started to play on the radio. Head banging ensued when the opera part ended and the rock section began. This would make a good scene for a movie, I thought.

Then I saw Wayne's World on the big screen when I was going to teacher's college in Barrie in 1992.

Mike Myers captured my idea and, let's be honest, reached a heck of a lot more movie-goers than your humble scribe.

I revisited Myers' film 24 years later.

My thoughts - there are some very funny scenes here, others are definitely ho-hum.

Wayne and best buddy Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) broadcast their community cable TV show, Wayne's World, from Wayne's basement.

The show's success makes up for Wayne's lack of accomplishments with a career. "I have an extensive collection of name tags and hair nets," he notes early on.

Producer Benjamin Oliver (Rob Lowe) catches the late-night hijinks and senses a prime business opportunity. Pair Wayne's World with arcade tycoon Noah Vanderhoft (Brian Doyle-Murray). Yes, kids, for a lot of years, went to arcades to play video games.

Getting handed $5,000 each is too much for Wayne and Garth to start asking too many questions, ie. what's in the contract. Strange that Garth breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience about his uneasiness about doing business with Benjamin, but he signs anyways.

The production moves from the suburbs to the television studio. Wayne finds, surprise, surprise, doing business with the big boys means he no longer has total control over his show. He feuds with Benjamin, makes friend of Vanderhoft and risks losing his promising rock with babe-a-licious rocker Cassandra (Tia Carrere).

Along the way, there's pop culture references that may be a little dated to audiences now - television's Laverne and Shirley, Terminator II and Scooby Doo.

As a Canadian, it's fun to see Myers' nods to his roots by having some of the film's action take place at Mikita Doughuts, no coubt a reference to the Tim Hortons' chain north of the 49th parallel and Wayne and Garth playing street hockey. Naturally, they yell out "Car" and "game on" in-between plays. I'll also give marks for Wayne learning Cantonese to impress Cassandra. Too bad this scene drags on a bit too long.

Alice Cooper has a cameo. Too bad it's not very funny.

Wayne's World is not excellent, but not bad.

RATING: 6/10

FUN FACTS: That's the late Chris Farley as the security guard Wayne and Garth meet at the Alice Cooper concert.

Ione Skye, woman of my university dreams, how could I not recognize you in this film. Need to go back and see when Elyse appears in this film.

Oh, Ed O'Neill from television's Married with Children is the manager of Mikita's. His scenes are not that funny.

Myers and Carvey won best on-screen duo from MTV Movie Awards in 2003. Excellent!

I feel sorry for Lara Flynn Boyle. She's wasted here as Wayne's ex-girlfriend who just can't get over the break-up.

Wayne's World II followed a year later.