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Wayne’s World is directed by Penelope Spheeris (The
Decline of Western Civilization.) The film stars Mike Myers
(Austin Powers), Dana Carvey (This Is Spinal Tap), Tia Carrere
(Jury Duty), Rob Lowe (St. Elmo’s Fire), Brian Doyle-Murray
(National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), Ed O’Neill (Married
With Children), and Donna Dixon. The film is based on the
classic series of Saturday Night Live sketches of the same
name, also starring Myers. ***
Wayne Campbell (Myers) and Garth Elgar (Carvey) are
hold-over would-be rockers from the eighties. Wayne still
lives in his parents’ basement, and hosts his public access
television show, Wayne’s World, from there – a strange show
that isn’t afraid to poke fun at its guests. A television
executive (Lowe) intends to acquire the rights to the show,
so that he can exploi t it and make big bucks from the production.
Along the way, Garth will pursue his dream woman (Dixon),
Wayne will meet a rock star girlfriend (Carrere), and the
twosome will hear plenty of bizarre theories and experiences
from a psychotic donut shop owner (O’Neill.) ***
Wayne’s World is a classic because it succeeds on so
many levels. In addition to giving us interesting, funny
characters, the movie throws comical scenes at us at lightning
speed – and they succeed more often than they fall flat.
Additionally, the film manages to make fun of just about
every angle of the movie industry without ever losing its
heart. Despite some harsh language here and there, it manages
to succeed as a film without being explicit. Yes, it’s a
little bit dated almost two decades later. But when so many
catchphrases from one movie become part of everyday American
culture, you know the film has succeeded and cemented its
own place as a classic piece of20cinema (even if it goes
against everything I usually call classics.) ***
There aren’t enough good things to say about this movie.
There is no shortage of stuff that will make you laugh here.
In just over an hour-and-a-half, the movie pokes fun at
the entertainment industry, product placement, alternate
endings, public access television, and other films and genres
– yet at the same time manages to tell an effective, comical
story that, unlike so many other comedies, actually has
a heart. Wayne’s World may not have the impact it did during
its initial release two decades ago, but there is no denying
that this is a great little piece of cinema. You’ll laugh
until it hurts – and then you’ll laugh some more. ---
Image and Sound: You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll Hurl!
And this time around, you’ll be doing all three in 1080p
and TrueHD! The transfer here is a bit underwhelming, but
this was never really much of a “visual” movie. This transfer
is a slight step up in detail from earlier DVD incarnations
of the movie, but it’s not a massive improvement over them.
Where the disc really shines, though, is its TrueHD audio
track, which really gets a chance to shine in loud scenes,
and features improved clarity over earlier DVD counterparts.
However, if you own the older DVD, there’s really not much
of a reason to upgrade. This is a good-looking and sounding
disc, but it’s not that much of an improvement over an upconverted
DVD.
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| Special
Features: |
There are no new special features here, just stuff
ported over from the previous DVD release. First up is a
Penelope Spheeris commentary track. No fan of the movie
will be disappointed in this commentary – it goes into quite
a bit of detail on the movie, and she has no shortage of
info to share. Still, you’ll wish Myers and Carvey had been
on board. The other major feature is Extreme Close-Up, your
standard obligatory “making of” featurette. Like the commentary,
there’s a lot of interesting information here, and fans
won’t want to pass it up. Closing out the features is the
original theatrical trailer. All in all, these are nice
little bonuses, I only wish they had included some new stuff
here instead of just porting over (what few) bonus features
were on the DVD. ---
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