WAYNE'S WORLD

US, 1992, 95 minutes, Colour.
Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carerre, Lara Flynn Boyle.
Directed by Penelope Spheeris.

Wayne's World was one of the most popular box office successes in the United States in 1992, soon grossing over $100,000,000. It is a spin-off from the successful Saturday Night Live program. Writer-actor Mike Myers created Wayne and his nerd-friend Garth (comedian Dana Carvey) for the show. It's as if a sketch from any popular spoof program were developed into movie length. The appeal is to devotees and may well bewilder the casual viewer. It's in the Bill and Ted Excellent Adventures vein (and vocabulary). There is probably an age tolerance factor involved as well.

In Aurora, Illinois, Wayne and Garth produce a cable program which has a great following amongst youth. Young executive, Rob Lowe, sees it as a potential goldmine and tries to get contract possession of the program. There are spoof sequences about contemporary American life, the status quo, executives and greed. The direction is by Penelope Spheeris, best known for her documentary on the decline of western civilisation and her portrait of rock and heavy metal music.

1.The success of the film? Cult movie? The television background? Transition to cinema?

2.Aurora, Ilinois, Chicago, the city, the suburbs? The contrast between the small town and the big city?

3.The quality of the writing and performance, writing for television, sketchy characters, vocabulary? Attitudes and behaviour? Satire by skit and spoof? The serious undertones? The variety of the endings?

4.Television acting style, production? Techniques? Television patter, commercials, promotion? The guests - and the mocking of the guests? The logo and the theme and signature tune? The musical score?

5.The appeal to the audience, the zaniness, the types? A critique of the Establishment of the'80s?

6.Mike Myers and his creation of Wayne? As a person, character, manner, television style, friendship with Garth, the break-off with Stacey - and her inability to take a hint, her accident-proneness? Relationship with women, with the singer, pursuing her, the affair? Ben and his patter, the response to the contract - the money, the change in lifestyle, the program? Not reading between the lines? The interaction with people, the band? The friends, the production in the basement, the style of the program? Singing the Queen music? The nightclubs? The meetings with the sponsor and his wife? The demands of the show? The comic spoof, sniggering? The build-up to the climax, the confrontation with Benjamin, the singer and her contract, the audition for the executive in his car? The variety of endings - and Garth and Wayne's final words?

7.Garth as quiet, the buddy, nerdish behaviour? The range of pratfalls? His place in the show, the stooge for Wayne? Shy, with the girls? At the airport with Wayne? With Benjamin, the show? The finale and his helping with the audition? The variety of endings?

8.Benjamin, his girlfriend, watching the show, seeing its commercial potential? His spiel to the promoter of the arcades? Going to Wayne and Garth, his explanations, the contract, the promises? His deal with the sponsor, the rehearsals? His relationship with Wayne's girlfriend, the audition, the TV commercial and video? His changing the show, the performance? His finally being humiliated - and his behaviour in the three different endings?

9.Stacey, the relationship with Wayne, the mocking of the girl - her affair and its pratfalls, her accident-proneness? The contrast with the singer and her aplomb, style, singing in the club, relationship with Wayne, listening to him? The affair? The attractions of Benjamin, the video - the final audition and the various endings?

10.The range of types in Illinois - in the clubs, in the television stations, in big business?

11.The overall impact of the film - as comedy, as satire?