Mike Myers is funniest when his characters expect everyone else to agree with them. We rate his stubborn commitment to foolishness, especially with Dana Carvey beside him, but he can keep a routine going long after it has stopped being funny.
Fi1m perspective
In Wayne's World (1992), Myers's Wayne Campbell talks as though agreement is already settled. Dana Carvey's Garth Algar takes longer to answer, and that small delay matters: it makes Wayne's confidence look both enjoyable and faintly ridiculous. Myers can be hard work when he insists on another go at a joke. Beside Carvey, he has someone whose smallest response can make the effort worthwhile.
We laughed at the pairing because Carvey's hesitancy makes Myers's certainty funnier; neither needs much of a plot to hold our interest. That is fortunate, since the screenplay Myers wrote with Terry Turner and Bonnie Turner provides so little of one. Director Penelope Spheeris helps by varying the pace and breaking up routines with sight gags and to-camera interruptions. The film's treatment of women can be tiresome, but we would still spend an evening in this company.
The breakthrough with Wayne led to Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and a trilogy running to 2002. Its affectionate parody of 1960s spy films suits a performer whose comedy draws on Peter Sellers and Monty Python. Myers wrote the films and played multiple parts, including Austin Powers and Dr. Evil in the first. Voicing the title character in Shrek (2001), then continuing across four films through 2010, took his character-making into animation.
There is a limit to how far that commitment will carry a film. The reviews of The Cat in the Hat (2003) faulted an overly broad, high-pitched performance; The Love Guru (2008) drew criticism for strained stereotypes and a shortage of laughs. The danger is already visible in Wayne's World, where Myers's insistence sometimes becomes tiring even with Carvey beside him.
In Antoine Fuqua's Michael (2026), Myers has a fine time playing record executive Walter Yetnikoff. We found the film wanting, but its business scenes have a detail missing from much of the surrounding biography. His contribution is a pleasure without making the film worth recommending. Start with Wayne's World, with Carvey there to make even the pauses worth watching.
Biography
Mike Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker. Born on 25 May 1963 in Scarborough, Ontario, he first appeared on Canadian television programmes before joining the cast of the NBC sketch series Saturday Night Live for six seasons from 1989 to 1995.
Myers created and starred in the Austin Powers film series (1997–2002) and voiced the title character in the Shrek films (2001–2010). He played Ray Foster in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and General Ed Fenech in Inglourious Basterds (2009). He made his directorial debut with the documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2013) and created and starred in the Netflix series The Pentaverate (2022). He appeared as Walter Yetnikoff in Michael (2026).
