If ever there was an unnecessary sequel, it's "Wayne's World 2."
After five minutes or so, the realization begins to set in that with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in fright wigs, mugging at the camera and spouting the supposedly "hip" slang they invented for the original "Wayne's World" skit on "Saturday Night Live," a little goes a long, long way.
Not that kids who made "Wayne's World" a $100 million hit will notice — they'll probably embrace this one as well. Ironically, however, they are bound to feel out of the loop when it comes to getting the jokes.
Myers apparently thought he was making another "Airplane!" or "Hot Shots!" as he includes so many gags, references and extended set-pieces dedicated to films of the past that 90 percent of the core audience is guaranteed not to get them. And when an extended lampoon of "The Graduate" hits the mark at the end of the picture, you have to wonder if more than a couple of people in the theater will be in on the joke.
Even the central movie spoof, of Oliver Stone's "The Doors," with a half-naked American Indian appearing to Wayne in a dream and leading him to Jim Morrison in the desert, seems odd since that movie was a box office flop and is not likely to have been seen by most of the audience.
The central gimmick (it can hardly be called a plot) of "Wayne's World 2" has Wayne planning a rock concert in his home town of Aurora, Ill., which he has modestly dubbed "Wayne-stock." He is also promising Aerosmith will appear — and the heavy metal group does show up at the beginning and end of the film.
Meanwhile, Wayne is battling jealousy again, this time as he watches a sleazy record producer (Christopher Walken) putting the moves on his girlfriend, rock musician Cassandra (again played byTia Carrere).
Garth also gets a girlfriend (Kim Basinger, in an extended, unbilled cameo), though she turns out to be quite different than what he initially sees.
With its mix of vulgar slapstick, stupidity and silliness, "Wayne's World 2" establishes Mike Myers as the Jerry Lewis of the '90s, although I'm not sure that's what he's striving for. But his smug, condescending style of comedy is comparable, and his popularity equally baffling.
"Wayne's World 2" is rated PG-13 for vulgarity, profanity, sexual innuendo and nudity.