When people get nostalgic for their young and stupid days,
I cannot help but wonder just how stupid was that phase.
Were they taking risks they’d now oppose
And banging heads to radios
And hosting public access shows
That talked about God-only-knows?

If so, I see the reason for the fondness for their prime,
Though most, I think, now wonder where their brain was at the time.
I think I skipped, for good or ill,
My foolish phase of chill and thrill,
But maybe years from now, I will
Admit that I am in it still.
________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

For years now, I’ve known of Wayne’s World and its main characters’ similarity to the other dim-witted best friends in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but I’d only seen the time travel tale of Bill and Ted and just got to see the hijinks of Wayne and Garth for the first time recently. I’m not sure which came first, since even though Wayne’s World the movie came out after Bill and Ted, the characters of Wayne and Garth originated as a Saturday Night Live skit the same year Bill and Ted was released. Regardless of who first proclaimed the immortal interjection “Excellent!”, the appeal of both is about the same. I went into Wayne’s World expecting entertaining stupidity, and that’s what it delivered in spades.

Since Wayne’s World was a series of SNL skits, it’s not surprising that the movie is like a series of hilarious moments strung together with the loosest of plots. Early on, we’re introduced to the public access show that metal-loving best friends Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) host from Wayne’s basement, but they both make time for their preferred habits of hanging out at the local donut shop and rocking out in the car or the nearest party with a decent metal band. When a smarmy TV producer (Rob Lowe) offers them a chance at a wider network audience, they jump at the financial incentive, but will it change who Wayne and Garth are? Not!

As moronic as they are, Wayne and Garth are still relatable in their nerdy sincerity, particularly for me since I actually have a friend who reminded me a lot of a combination of the two dudes (in their idiosyncrasies, not their stupidity). Honestly, though, the actual plot that places stress on Wayne and Garth’s friendship is secondary to individual scenes that just stick out with random geeky joy, exemplified in the early car scene that illustrates how “Bohemian Rhapsody” gave a generation brain damage. There are too many hilarious scenes to list; for instance, there’s the fourth-wall breaking, or the repeated love-song halos that Wayne and Garth see around their crushes, or the ridiculous subtitles when Wayne speaks Chinese with his girlfriend Cassandra (beautiful Tia Carrere), or some truly random moments of intelligence coming from unexpected places. (Alice Cooper’s cameo has to be one of the best I’ve seen.) In addition, the soundtrack is rich with classic rock, much of it actually sung with screaming gusto by Tia Carrere, not least of which is her awesome performance of The Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz.”

By the end, even the movie itself knowingly ignores plot conventions for the sake of the humor, letting the audience choose what kind of ending we’d prefer. Like Bill and Ted, it’s strange to say, but this kind of highly quotable dumb humor is somehow brilliant in its idiocy, which I’ve come to appreciate more with time. I still prefer Bill and Ted for its wilder plot, but Wayne’s World is its own kind of “excellent.”

Best lines: (ex-girlfriend Stacy) “Well, don’t you want to open your present?”   (Wayne) “If it’s a severed head, I’m going to be very upset.”

(Wayne) “I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turned out I was just really bored.”

(Wayne) “Good call. It’s like [Benjamin] wants us to be liked by everyone. I mean, Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes everybody liked. They left that to the Bee Gees.”

Rank: List-Worthy

© 2017 S.G. Liput
439 Followers and Counting

The golden orb shone on the heath and lazily it flew,
While muddy plows and barren cows belied a murky charm.
The water troughs reflected back the sky’s pathetic blue,
When Flora Poste arrived to host the old Cold Comfort Farm.

The quarters of the Starkadders had stood for centuries,
And honestly it looked it in its gloomy disrepair.
But deep beneath the seedy heath were possibilities,
And that’s why ‘twas a lucky thing that Flora Poste was there.
_______________________

MPAA rating: PG

I checked out Cold Comfort Farm from my library based on the whimsical description on the back, which made it sound like a British version of Chevy Chase’s Funny Farm, but it’s something else. Based on a Stella Gibbons novel from 1932 and released first on the BBC, then in theaters, it’s a makeover lark with a humor that seems to defy easy categorization. Perhaps that’s because the charm is meant as contrast between the bourgeois sensibilities of Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale in one of her first roles) and the hyperbolic gloominess of her rural Starkadder relatives with whom she goes to stay at Cold Comfort Farm.

Determined to live off of her relations while working on a novel, Flora appeals for invitations and picks Cold Comfort in Sussex because it sounds “interesting and appalling” as opposed to the others, which are just appalling. There’s a strange old-world charm to the Starkadders, who continually refer to Flora as “Robert Poste’s child” and use fake archaic words like sukebind, scranlete, and clettering. Since the original book was meant as a parody of dreary rustic novels, it’s no surprise that the tone was as if the most melancholy portions of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre were played for laughs. Despite the large cast of characters, most of them have a moment to shine, such as Judith Starkadder (Eileen Atkins) with her Frau Blucher-like gravitas, her husband Amos (Ian McKellen) who delivers a fire-and-brimstone sermon that would make Jonathan Edwards quiver, their son Seth (Rufus Sewell) who loves the movies, their other son Reuben (Ivan Kaye) who hopes to run the farm himself one day, and several other colorful personages, all subjugated by the oppressive hand of Aunt Ada Doom (Sheila Burrell), who is haunted by seeing “something nasty in the woodshed” when she was a child. (Boy, that was a long sentence!)

After innocently asking if she might change a few things, Flora quickly takes it upon herself to bring this motley crew into the modern age, encouraging them in different ways to crawl out from under Aunt Ada’s thumb. Flora might have seemed like an overly nosy busybody, but Beckinsale plays her with earnest confidence in her self-appointed roles of matchmaker and wish granter, efforts met with surprising success. By the end, two questions on which the plot seemed to hang are entirely ignored in favor of blithe wish fulfillment, but it’s hard not to be won over by the appeal of a happy ending.

Cold Comfort Farm may not be a typical country farce, but its unconventional wit and talented cast (including Stephen Fry, Freddie Jones, and Joanna Lumley, by the way) make it an entertaining amusement.

Best line: (Amos) “There’ll be no butter in hell!”

Or for a line more indicative of the film’s Jane Austen-ish wit:

(Charles, Flora’s friend) “Do you ever think of getting married?”
(Flora) “I believe in arranged marriages, don’t you?”
(Charles) “Rather out of date.”
(Flora) “Not at all. I’ve always liked the phrase, ‘A marriage has been arranged.’ When I feel like it, I’ll arrange one.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2016 S.G. Liput
437 Followers and Counting