Wayne's World 2 Movie Review

Gotta love those references to An Officer and a Gentleman. Having Chris Farley channel depressed pilot-in-training Richard Gere during the tear-soaked line, "I got no place else ta go-ho-hooooooooo," is almost worth the price of admission right there. Too bad that Wayne's World 2 is mostly just mining the same pop culture terrain as its far more worthy predecessor. It was a surprise to see that Mike Myers and Dana Carvey were able to take their "two guys on a couch" cable access rock 'n' rollers through even one feature length adventure, with enjoyable detours to an Alice Cooper concert as well as a playful game of street hockey. Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was instantly embraced by a generation of kids who didn't even know Freddy Mercury from Adam -- poor bastards. Hasn't anyone seen Highlander? Jesus Christ, what the hell's wrong with the kids of America, anyway? Don't answer that.

Wayne's World 2 opens with our dynamic duo still running their own show, though they've moved from their basement to a warehouse. Good for them, right? But when smarmy record producer Bobby Cahn (Christopher Walken, coasting but still The Man) steps in to make life miserable and steal Wayne's lovely girlfriend Cassandra (Tia Carrere, who still can't act but is still One Hot Tamale), Wayne is told in a vision by Jim Morrison(!) that he should stage a rock concert in Aurora, Illinois. Waynestock, of course. "If you book them, they will come." This will bring Cassandra back and, no doubt, provide a sense of meaning in Wayne's slacker life. Right? Right? Uh... maybe.

"Exsqueeze me?", "Asphinctersezwhat?" and "Schwing!" are all employed, but much like their "party on" mantra it all feels like Myers and Carvey rehashing the same old schtick. This has been the curse of Saturday Night Live during those awful Adam Sandler-Chris Farley years where characters and recurring catch-phrases replaced the brilliant situation comedy of John Belushi's "cheeseburger, cheeseburger" café guy, or Eddie Murphy's landlord-tenant blues in "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood." ("Landlord turned off my heat. Can you say mutha?") There's not much in Wayne's World 2 that relates to authentic experience, just a series of one-liners that might look nice on a t-shirt but fail to invigorate the comedy. You know how people say things are all relative? Well, in Wayne's World 2 there's nothing to relate to!

It ain't all bad. Garth has a cute soiree with a blonde honey, played by Kim Basinger, who proves to be as goofy as he is underneath her model-perfect exterior. Charlton Heston and Drew Barrymore makes brief but amusing appearances. Wayne and Garth remain fairly charming fellows to be around for 95 minutes, but Wayne's World 2 shows that their universe is a really tiny place. Too many jokes are repeated, and they've got no place else to go.

On DVD, the commentary track by director Stephen Surjik (mainly known for directing some Kids in the Hall TV show episodes) is so banal that I couldn't listen to more than 30 minutes of it. The making-of documentary is equally tossable, although Lorne Michaels states that Aerosmith wouldn't agree to appear in the original Wayne's World, whereas Penelope Spheeris's commentary on the former film states she didn't want them. Sadly, that's as much intrigue as you're going to get out of this disc.