Thursday, February 27, 1992
Rick's Top 10 Rock'n'Roll Movies
(Movies Wayne and Garth would find excellent.)
Easy Rider (Dir. Dennis Hopper)
The movie that changed the face of films in the 60's. Fonda
and Hopper make great heroes;they had all that hair, all that
freedom and all that cocaine to sell. Too bad they had to die.
The Last Waltz (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
A celebration of music. Film about The Band's last concert on
Thanksgiving 1976 still holds up some 15 years later. A must
see. Also with: Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and
others.
The Blues Brothers (Dir. John Landis)
Before there was Wayne and Garth on cable access there was
Jake and Elwood on a mission from God. Epic comedy is
often hilarious and never boring. Rockin' R&B from Aretha,
Sam and Dave and other greats.
Eddie and The Cruisers (Dir. Martin Davidson)
You may laugh about it now, but remember about ten
summers ago when it was the only album that you listened to?
Early '6o's nostalgia from John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown
Band.
Pink Floyd - The Wall (Dir. Alan Parker)
Parker and Roger Waters’ unique visualization of The Floyd's
most popular album. It is ; both thoroughly depressing and
incredibly exhilarating. A true surealist masterpiece.
FM (Dir. John Alonzo)
Even the dopey storyline about a bunch of wild'n'crazy
1970's Disk Jockeys can't detract from one of the juciest
soundtracks ever put to film. Standouts include Steely Dan,
Bob Seger and Joe Walsh. See it now.
The Cpmmlßtienl? (Pir. Alw Parker) >
Strange premise about a group of white teenagers in Dublin,
Ireland forming a soul band not only works but also gives us
one of the best soundtrack albums of recent years.
3. Harold and Maude (Dir. Hal Ashby)
He's 20 and suicidal. She's 80 and full of life. Sex was
inevitable. Black comedy in one of the most loved cult films
of the '7os. Hilarious and uplifting, it is helped along by a
great Cat Stevens score.
Heavy Metal (Dir. Ivan Reitman)
Truthfully, I thought the animation sucked, but the
soundtrack, although far from heavy metal, does pack a
punch. Featuring Sammy Hagar and Blue Oyster Cult.
This is Spinal Tap (Dir. Rob Reiner)
"There's a fine line between clever and stupid." Rob Reiner
shoots and scores in this satire of metal bands and Scorsese's
Last Waltz. Great tunes include: "Sex Farm," "Big Bottoms"
and "Listen to the Flower People."
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In no particular order:
The Collegian
Celebration of youth
Lose yourself in Wayne's World
by Rick Kastan
The Collegian
Let's talk a bit about Saturday
Night Live. I have never been a
big fan of SNL for many reasons,
the biggest being that the show
is only occasionally funny.
Now, seeing as I rarely
watch the show, I was not too
terribly excited when I heard that
they were making a full-length
feature-film out of some SNL
skit called Wayne's World . For
this I am glad.
I'm glad I didn't get excited
because, for me, Wayne's World
is one of the most pleasant
surprises in a good many years.
For those of you
uninformed,Wayne's World is a
cable access show in Aurora,
Ohio. The show stars Wayne
Campbell (Mike Myers), your
normal average music-loving,
metal-headed teenager (but with a
quirky sense of humor-a rarity for
metal-heads), who broadcasts the
show from his basement.
Also on hand is Wayne's best
buddy Garth (who can best be
described as a cross between
Radar O'Riclly and one of the
Nelson twins) played by Dana
C«rvy.
What's the show about?
Well, nothing really. The two
just have a good time telling
mildly dirty jokes and worshiping
their occasional celebrity guest
stars.
Now, this is not the most
promising concept for an hour
and a half long movie. But, in
the hands of writer/star Myers,
the film takes the basics of
Wayne's World and uses them as
springboards for a story that is so
dumb, so improbable and so thin
that it has to be enjoyable.
The movie starts out as you
would expect, with another
episode of Wdy/te's World. This
beginning is not too promising,
but about five minutes into the
flick something magical seems to
happen. It's a very simple gag
actually.
Wayne piles into the car with
four of his buddies and pops a
tape of Queen's Bohemian
Rhapsody into the car stereo.
The scene that follows is truly
side-splitting not just because of
what they are doing but also
because you realize that it is
something that you have done
with your best buddies a hundred
times before. This is the key to
the success of the whole film.
You see,Wayne's World is
not just about two guys who
have their own TV show to do
what they want with.
It is a celebration of youth.
It is a celebration of being
do whatever you :feel might be
fun at any given time.
It's about a phase in our lives
that, sadly, most of us have
passed out of but can still fondly
remember.
It's about something very
familiar to us.
Wayne's World succeeds
because it is clever enough to
retain its youth without
exploiting it, and for this it can
be praised. It also has enough
heart and enough brains to rise
above other recent spoofs (Hot
Shots, etc.), while using the
same basic jokes.
The story isn't much to write
home about. Wayne’s World is
seen by TV programmer
Benjamin Oliver (Rob Lowe)
who intends to buy the show, put
it on his station and basically
exploit Wayne and Garth for all
they're worth (as my friend pul it:
'he's so sleazy'). Meanwhile,
Wayne falls in love with a
beautiful Cantoneese rock singer
whom Benjamin will also try to
steal.
Anyway, the joy here is not
in the story but in the writing
and the performances.
Myers' script is literate and
funny and pokes fun at all the
relevant things. Although the
film is full of comedic action, I
found the quieter, homier parts to
be the funniest. There is just
something endearing about two
guys dressed up for street hockey
yelling 'car' and moving their net
onto and off of the road.
In the acting arena, we have
Myers who is surprisingly
charismatic as Wayne and Carvy,
as Garth, who is funny but stays
mostly in the background.
Wayne carries the film
mainly on his own, but when he
and Garth are together they have a
kind of chemistry usually seen
only from the best comedy teams
like Abbott and Costello, Ren
and Stimpy or Chainsaw and
Dave.
The film is also full of
cameos which are great fun (my
favorites are Ed O'Neill and
Robert Patrick from T 2).
Director Penelope Spheeris
(The Decline of Western
Civilization Parts 1 & 2) gives
the film a great look and,
although the film does start to
drag about three quarters of the
way through, keeps the laughs
coming right up until the very
end (which, by the way, has to be
one of the funniest endings ever).
In summary, Wayne's World
is intelligent, funny and even
endearing. Go see it soon or you
will be considered a sphincter
boy. Party on!!!
iSNUUVf
WMI
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