By John Corrado

Released in theatres on February 14th, 1992, the classic comedy Wayne’s World is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and Paramount is honouring the occasion with an “excellent” new limited edition Blu-ray SteelBook.

Produced by Lorne Michaels, the film was a big screen spinoff of the popular Saturday Night Live sketch, starring Mike Myers (in his film debut) as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, a pair of slacker metalheads who run a cable access TV show out of Wayne’s parents’ basement.

The film finds best buds Wayne and Garth contending with big shot producer Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe) as he tries to take over and commercialize their show, while Wayne pines after “mega-babe” Cassandra Wong (Tia Carrere), the lead singer and bass player in a local rock band.

Directed by Penelope Spheeris, who was hired based off her experience capturing the punk rock and heavy metal scenes in her documentary series The Decline of Western Civilization, Wayne’s World has a slightly anarchic but also oddly sweet-natured feel to it. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid obsessed with Mike Myers (this and the Austin Powers films were huge for me), and had a lot of fun revisiting the film and its many classic moments (including that famous head-banging in the car to “Bohemian Rhapsody” opening sequence).

It remains the most financially successful of the SNL spinoff films (successful enough to spawn the sequel Wayne’s World 2 a year later), and one of the best as well, offering a delightful mix of amusing comic performances, meta fourth-wall breaking moments, and insanely quotable dialogue including some inspired one-liners. Add in a solid soundtrack and a fun Alice Cooper cameo, and this all adds up to a fast-paced and very entertaining ’90s comedy.

The orange SteelBook features Wayne and Garth posing with their guitar and drum sticks on the front and back, surrounded by famous quotes from the film in various size fonts. Spread across the inside is a shot of them posing at Shotz Brewery from the Laverne & Shirley montage. It’s a bright, eye-popping package that is fun to look at, with the choice of quotes being the icing on the cake.

Bonus Features (Blu-ray):

The disc includes three archival bonus features ported over the earlier Blu-ray release, though a new retrospective or something would have been nice. A code for a digital copy is also included in the package, which comes with the standard J-card.

• Commentary with Director Penelope Spheeris

• Extreme Close-Up (23 minutes, 14 seconds): Lorne Michaels, Penelope Spheeris, Tia Carerre, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey reflect on developing the characters, shooting the film, and how much fun they all had on set in this fun vintage featurette.

• Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes, 6 seconds)

Wayne’s World: 30th Anniversary (SteelBook Edition) is a Paramount Home Entertainment release. It’s 94 minutes and rated PG.

Street Date: February 1st, 2022