Wayne’s World (1992)

“Did you ever find Bugs Bunny attractive when he put on a dress and played girl bunny?”

Bill and Ted introduced the concept of dudes to an unwitting audience in 1989, but it was this spin-off from the TV show Saturday Night Live that brought in the megabucks and took “teen speak” to a new level.

Mike Myers and Dana Carvey play Wayne and Garth, Heavy Metal fans whose low-budget public access cable show – broadcast from their basement in suburban Aurora, Illinois – is transformed into a national TV phenomenon by sleazy producer Benjamin Oliver (Rob Lowe).

Along the way, Wayne falls in love with oriental rock chick and “megababe” Cassandra (Tia Carrere) and, along with Garth, gets to meet their idol, Alice Cooper.

Aiming for the unashamedly moronic, director Penelope Spheeris nevertheless manages to sneak in some sly satirical jibes and it benefits from inspired casting: Myers and Carvey are excellent, Lowe and Lara Flynn Boyle, as Myers’s mad ex-girlfriend, Stacy, are both nicely cast against type, and there is a neat cameo from Terminator 2 villain Robert Patrick.

The music’s mainly metal, but the wonderful Queen tribute means you will never – if you ever did – be able to take Bohemian Rhapsody seriously again.

There’s a Laverne and Shirley spoof and several alternative endings.

Wayne Campbell
Mike Myers
Garth Algar
Dana Carvey
Benjamin Oliver
Rob Lowe
Cassandra
Tia Carrere
Noah Vanderhoff
Brian Doyle-Murray
Stacy
Lara Flynn Boyle
Alan
Michael DeLuise
Neil
Dan Bell
Terry
Lee Tergesen
Russell
Kurt Fuller
Phil
Sean Gregory Sullivan
Mrs Vanderhoff
Colleen Camp
Dream woman
Donna Dixon

Director
Penelope Spheeris

Video