The Hubs and I watched this film last night, actually (can’t fault me for being honest) but it fits with the themes of other films I’ve featured in this series and you can search by Morality Movie Monday to find the rest of them.
This was a delight, I must say. My first experience with the film happened as the sequel was released in theatres and McDonald’s was selling cheap VHS tapes along with a burger.
All IMDB puts in for a movie description is this:
Two slacker friends try to promote their public-access cable show.
So, I’ll see if I can do better than that for anyone who’s never seen this, or at least needs a refresher. Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey play Wayne and Garth, a couple dudes who somehow manage to run a TV show through Wayne’s basement. It’s crazy popular on account of its metal music and silly gags, either at Garth’s expense, and otherwise directed at any guests.
Rob Lowe plays Chris Traeger — I mean, Benjamin, a TV producer who’s been shown their show and decides that its odd popularity could be used to his advantage. The owner of a local arcade chain is in need of better promotion and gets roped into becoming the main advertiser for the new Wayne’s World show. All well and good, but the fancy style of Ben’s version doesn’t really appeal to either host of the original. Wayne blows an interview with the arcade owner on the inaugural episode and gets fired. Garth is hopeless as a solo host, though.
Adding some conflict is the very beautiful Tia Carrere as Cassandra, a popular singer and Wayne’s love interest. Ben invites Cassandra and her band, Crucial Taunt, to do a very ridiculous snake-riddled music video, but Wayne’s worried about Ben having ulterior motives of the sex variety and Cassandra’s pissed over his lack of trust, thus breaking things off. Wayne wins her back in the end, of course.
This does not pass the Bechdel test. She’s one of the only named women in the film, but doesn’t talk to any other named women about anything, let alone something not related to a man. Added bummer, Garth’s love interest seems to be one dimensional – some smiley sexy blonde at the donut shop that never says a word to anybody, least of all Garth. She’s a pipe dream, not a person. Cass is at least fleshed out as a woman with passion and ambition. Another named woman of note is Stacy (Lara Flynn Boyle who was so fun and baffling as Donna in Twin Peaks). She has an unhealthy fixation on Wayne, who’d broken up with her sometime before the film events, but still thinks she needs to buy him things and hang around all the time. He’s quite mean to her, actually. As a viewer, I feel bad for her. Wayne’s an asshole. Surely, had this been reality, he could have sat the woman down and said, look, chick. You’re nice and all but we’re not really fitting well together and I think it would be better if we saw other people. Not everyone does well with rejection, though.
Side note, I’m reminded of prom. One of my neighbours set me up with someone he knew since I was single and hopeless. We arranged to meet at the dance and he was nice enough, but I wasn’t firm with him in terms of “this is only for tonight” and he tried to pursue me for most of the summer. I think he finally got the message when I completely ignored him at the mall and focused all my attention on my friend whose folks ran the lotto booth. It’s likely a good thing the internet was yet to be anything in 1992 (the year this film came out, happy 25th anniversary!), because the guy might have turned into one of those idiotic dudes who feel like they’re forced into celibacy by bitches rather than admit they have the social skills of a hammer.
Anyway, I enjoyed Wayne’s World. It’s such a product of its era. The Bohemian Rhapsody scene alone makes it a classic, in my eyes.
One Minion's Opinion 