Wayne’s World (1992)

[3]

Saturday Night Live‘s Mike Myers and Dana Carvey turn their recurring skit into a feature-length movie directed by Penelope Spheeris (Suburbia, The Boys Next Door). Rob Lowe co-stars as a television producer who gives the lads a chance to turn their irreverent public-broadcast show into a commercial TV sensation — if they can only bow to the demands of corporate sponsorship.

I couldn’t wait for Wayne’s World to end. I laughed only once, after Wayne (Myers) is fired by Lowe for mocking the sponsor on live television. The show resumes with Garth, alone and frightened with the whole world watching, waiting for him to say something. After a beat, someone in the studio control room turns and asks, “Did you ever see that scene in Scanners when the guy’s head blew up?”

Other than this one good joke, the movie relies on songs, already-established running jokes, and guest cameos to get by. There’s no hint of Spheeris’s subversiveness in the film, no comic set-pieces, and nothing to bring this aimless comedy together. With Lara Flynn Boyle and Ed O’Neill.