“White supremist world was cancelled.”
When you talk about Wayne’s World 2 you can’t help but talk about disappointment. I mentioned in my review for the first film that over the span of nearly 20 years the skit had lost some of its luster. I certainly wasn’t nearly as entertained now as I had been when I first saw the film in the early 1990’s. That same principle appears to have been true just a year later when Wayne’s World 2 was released. It gathered in a disappointing $48 million off a $40 million budget. While there was talk of a continuing franchise at the beginning, there wasn’t any interest in a third film by the time the second film had crashed and burned. The fact is, I know many fans out there that didn’t even know a second film existed.
It’s been a year now and Wayne (Myers) has finally moved out of his parents’ house. The show is now being broadcast from a loft in a warehouse building. It’s back on cable in the late hours of the night. Beyond that, nothing has really changed for Wayne and Garth (Carvey). Cassandra (Carrere) is a different story. She signed that record deal and is in the process of producing her first album. In a dream, Wayne follows a naked Indian through a desert, where he encounters Jim Morrison. Morrison tells him that he must create a concert festival in his small hometown. Morrison tells him not to worry about getting big acts. “If you book them they will come”. At the same time the boys must save Cassandra from her evil label representative (Walken) who intends to get rid of the boyfriend and her band. He fills her head with stars and tries to win her over completely. Between Waynestock and the race to win back Cassandra, there doesn’t seem to be enough time for as much of the kind of comedy that made the first film work, at least for its time. Garth gets the chicks in this one. First it’s Kim Basinger, who plays a married woman trying to get Garth to kill her husband. The second is mild mannered City Clerk, Betty Jo (d’Abo). The best part of the film is the burned out record producer, Del, who Morrison sends the boys to in order to book the concert. Ralph Brown steals every one of these scenes. James Hong is always a welcome sight in any film. Here he has a brief but entertaining role as Cassandra’s father.
The cast includes a couple of Saturday Night Live guests and the usual cameos, including Chris Farley. Ed O’Neill returns as Glen. Christopher Walken is actually a perfect foil for the boys. The rock ‘n’ roll guests are Areosmith. In an interesting side note, the boys tried to get the band to do the first film, but they turned it down on several occasions. After the success of the original film and the laughs Alice Cooper had doing it, the band agreed to be in this outing. There are riffs on Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, 1970’s Martial Arts films, and, of course, Field Of Dreams. The problem is actually the reverse of what these films usually deal with. Here the story is actually too developed and lends itself less to the spontaneous stuff from Myers and Carvey. Honestly, it doesn’t even appear like they’re having near as much fun.
Now you have the chance to add this repeat offender to your Blu-ray high definition library. The only question is, why would you do that. Just like the first film, image quality was never the issue. Your old DVD still looks just fine on the off chance you might actually want to see this one again.
Video
Wayne’s World 2 is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The 1080p image is arrived at with an AVC/MPEG-4 codec. This is not going to be one of those showcase discs in your collection. Certainly you never really expected that it would. Visuals are not really going to stand out here. All we can hope for is a little extra detail and clarity. One of the problems with this kind of detail is that we actually get a good look at just how ugly Steven Tyler is. Wherever did Liv get her looks from? It certainly wasn’t dear old Dad. The film looks about as good as it likely will ever get. Black levels are a little above average, and flesh tones are actually pretty spot on. Colors are realistic, if a little soft at times.
Audio
The Dolby TrueHD Audio track does a terrific job with the tunes. You get the most obvious upgrade here. The music delivers but is somewhat empty in the sub range. Dialog is crisp and clear. There isn’t much of any kind of surround usage here. The tunes sometimes spread out a little in the mix, but expect a bare bones presentation with good fidelity.
There is an Audio Commentary with director Stephen Surijik. This had to be one of the lamest commentary tracks I’ve ever heard. He spends a lot of time on the obvious and provides some wacky comments on the art of being a director.
Special Features
Extreme Close-Up: (14:06) This looks a lot like a promo type of extra. It is strictly interview segments augmented by clips. The subjects cover the hectic shooting schedule and the ad lib work of the film’s leads.
Final Thoughts:
If you’re up to revisiting the world of Wayne, might I suggest you spend that time on the original film or some segments from the television show? There really isn’t that much to see here. In fact, there’s at times a little too much to see. “I have to ask, didn’t you think it was a trifle unnecessary to see the crack in the Indian’s bottom?”
