Believe it or not, reader, WAYNE’S WORLD is one of the formative movies of my teenage years. I went alone as a kid to see an opening weekend matinee after seeing some very funny Saturday Night Live
Still my favourite SNL movie, this is part comedy-sketch, part coming-of-age, part bro-dance and romantic comedy and overall just a series of comedic misadventures that is the brainchild of a much younger Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne & Garth, respectively, two man-children who have a public access variety show in their basement who get a sudden dose of stardom when Rob Lowe comes along to do a bigger version of the show. Because when you think stardom, you think Rob Lowe!
Most of the behind-the-scenes of filming is very well documented, especially the stories of Myers and Carvey both having their versions of the scenes filmed and filmmaker Penelope Spherris working her magic in the editing room after. WAYNE’S WORLD was an immediate commercial AND critical success (it even landed on Gene Siskel’s Top 10 of the year) and spawned a sequel the next year that I thought was as funny as the original, but didn’t do as well and eventually capped the series. Even so, the success of this 1992 comedy did spawn a LOT of SNL inspired movies to varying success over the next decade. Still, WAYNE’S WORLD is the ultimate 90s comedy and the best example of how to do it. He shoots he scores!
About The Blu Ray:
For the most part, the star of this 30th anniversary re-release is the EXCELLENT new Steelbook edition that has a bit of the original poster art on the front surrounded by key quotes. Inside is a single Blu Ray disc (more often these days it’s Blu Ray only and the old DVDs are no longer added) and the usual digital copy card, with a key image of the famous Laverne & Shirley spoof sequence in full display as you take out the disc.
Otherwise, this is the same Blu Ray from many years ago, but good quality in its 16×9 presentation that shows the early 90s grunge look and suburban Aurora Illinois, and a 5.1 soundtrack that is more effective in its music and concert scenes; try to turn it up when Alice Cooper comes on stage. A digital copy is also included and redeems to Apple TV in the HD format. I’m still hoping down the line the movie gets more restoration work and into its proper 1.85 aspect ratio, and even into that 4k HDR format which I really like.
If you don’t have WAYNE’S WORLD in your collection yet, this Steelbook will look nice on your shelf and is an easy buy. And I’m hoping a Steelbook of the criminally underrated WAYNES WORLD 2 is next!
WAYNE’S WORLD is now available on Blu Ray in this most excellent Steelbook edition. Many thanks to Paramount PR and Shine Communications for sending along a copy for review.