I enjoyed Wayne's World superficially as a child, but seeing it again as a teenager newly baptised in rock was a revelation, and it usurped Holy Grail for a while there as my favourite film.
It's slipped down a bit since, but it still stands up. That's what she said. (Tidies hair behind ears under cap and beams to comrades in satisfaction, mouthing further celebratory remarks inaudibly and fidgeting about). I know it does, because the entire thing's permanently branded on my memory. But do Mike Myers' other films stand the test of time and my own, highly debatable maturity? Will Austin Powers be funnier now that I get it?
Here are my The Top 9 Mike Myers Movies. This only includes those he wrote, directed/produced or otherwise had the major role in, but not voice-over work so I don't have to watch Shrek. Unfortunately, it doesn't get me out of The Love Guru.
Par-key time, excellent:
Wayne's World
Austin Powers
Not those
9. The Love Guru (2008)
What, no trilogy?
A meteor falls into a back garden, but the greater cosmic weirdness is what that guy from Wayne's World is doing among the Irish cast in this low-budget drama, playing his role completely straight and resisting exaggerating his accent for comic effect. It turns out he's billed way above his personal contribution, so I needn't have wasted my time.
7. Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2013)
Myers fails to carve a directorial signature in this biography of his friend that looks and sounds like any other 21st century documentary. But if you're a budding artist or manager, there are some great tips on how to cynically exploit your impressionable audience for fame and fortune and the secret to finding deeper fulfillment in cooking. The testimonies of those debauched days are admirably and repellantly honest, with only fleeting hints of darker depths.
6. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
This concept had longer legs than Wayne's World, but he still made one too many. There are still funny bits, but the repeated gags are just tiresome and the gratuitous celebrity "gags" (the gag being that they're there?) made me feel dirty for watching.
One of the most predictable and patronising stories I've ever sat through, it's only moderately rescued by Myers, who makes it more bearable than if it had been made three years later with Jim Carrey.
4. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Vintage Bond knew what it was doing, to the point that some of this is shot-for-shot remake, but by pushing the innuendo much, much further, this loving tribute justifies its right to parody something that's already tongue-in-cheek. The toilet humour is all 90s though. I'm not sure we've progressed as far as the film claims.
3. Wayne's World 2 (1993)
The world wouldn't be any worse off without this inevitable rushed sequel, but it's not so mediocre that it tarnishes the first one. There are enough funny bits, but excessive parodies upset the delicate balance that made the first film somehow convincing despite the characters regularly addressing the camera.
2. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
There's nostalgia in play here, as this is the only one I'd seen before when I was the right age for the puerile gags, but all the sci-fi gimmicks put it a step up from the first film and the Bond pisstakes barely need to be exaggerated this time. The dysfunctional ensemble really gels and Mini-Me is so much like my cat.
1. Wayne's World (1992)
It might not be the greatest comedy ever, but it's not far off. As quotable as Airplane! and as deconstructive as Python, it also boasts one of the truest friendships in cinema history, even if Tia Carrere and Rob Lowe feel a bit out of place as mandatory movie babe and villain. When you find out later that it's a big-screen spin-off of short TV sketches, its success is even more remarkable.
