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Civil War in Wayne's World

Carvey Vs. Myers

by E. Charl Hattingh

It's the End of Wayne's World as We Know It

Let's get ready to "schwing"...or rumble. Wayne and Garth...two sweet and lovable young men from the town of Aurora, Illinois. Party time, excellent! But the party time is over for Wayne and Garth. No longer will they stand side by side and discuss "babalicious babes from Babe-Lon." They will set aside their similarities and face off at the summer box office. For the first time since 1993, both Mike Myers and Dana Carvey will be in theaters at the same time; they just won't be in the same movie.

Both Saturday Night Live stars in the late eighties and early nineties, Myers and Carvey took their skit about two clueless head-bangers to the silver screen in 1992, and Wayne's World became a huge hit. The movie became the first $100 million hit for both stars, making $127 million. The question was if the two could continue their success in movies.

At first it didn't seem like it was going to happen. Myers' next film, So, I Married an Axe Murderer made a pathetic $11 million while Carvey starred in the flop, Clean Slate. The sequel to Wayne's World made only $47 million and after that, both actors seemed to disappear from the silver screen. Carvey had some medical setbacks while Myers worked on some ideas for his next movie.

Myers returned to theaters in 1997 with an average hit, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but once the film hit video stores, a phenomena was born. I don't know if this happened to other people, but it seemed like all of the sudden, myself and friends had added some new phrases to our vocabulary right out of the movie. Friends of mine would memorize complete sentences out of the movie and repeat it over and over. Austin Powers became much more than just a cult hit, as it set the stage for the sequel to make it big. While the first Austin Powers made only $53 million in its entire run, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, opened with $57 million. While I still enjoyed the first film more, the second one was embraced by millions of fans and went on to gross over $200 million. Myers followed the 1999 hit with another one in 2001, but this time doing the voice for Shrek. The computer animated movie was not only the third $100 million hit for Myers, but it ended up grossing $267 million at the domestic box office, showing us that Myers was more than just a one character wonder.

Now both actors are returning to the big screen; Myers with Austin Powers In Goldmember (opening July 26) and Carvey with Master of Disguise (opening a week later on August 2). But don't expect a box office race similar to that of best friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (both of their movies - The Sum of All Fears and The Bourne Identity will end with about $120 million in domestic grosses). In fact, Carvey would be lucky if Master of Disguise grossed in its entire run what Goldmember will gross in its opening weekend. Actually, when Disguise premieres a week later, AP3 should still outgross it by at least $25 million in its second weekend.

While Austin Powers goes on to gross close to $200 million, Disguise should gross around $30 to 40 million. But as many of us know, Carvey was one of the best thing Saturday Night Live ever had to offer, if not the best. His skits like Church Lady ("Could It Be Satan!"), Hans and Frans ("We're here to -clap- Pump you up"), and Garth ("Schwing!") and his impersonations of politicians such as President Bush and presidential candidate Perot were some of the best skits ever on SNL. He is very talented, and maybe Master of Disguise will be the first step for him towards movie star status.

Mike Myers is already there and with other roles like The Cat and the Hat and Shrek 2 in the future, Myers should continue to be one of the most popular comedians in movies today. So, yes, there is a civil war in Wayne's World, but while Wayne is fighting with big guns, Garth is fighting with sticks.