Wild Hogs

Wild Hogs **

Directed by Walt Becker
Written by Brad Copeland

Starring:
Tim Allen as Doug Madsen
John Travolta as Woody Stevens
Martin Lawrence as Bobby Davis
William H. Macy as Dudley Frank
Ray Liotta as Jack
Marisa Tomei as Maggie
M.C. Gainey as Murdock
Jill Hennessy as Kelly Madsen

99 Minutes(Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and some violence)
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"Wild Hogs" is a mildly entertaining comedy, and certainly one that doesn't step above a certain bar. It's tough to say how this bunch of actors ended up together. Two of them I can see involved perfectly, one of them I am always somewhat eerie about, and the fourth one I'm confused about how he got into this project at all. And I am talking about John Travolta, William H. Macy, Tim Allen, and Martin Lawrence, respectively. And then in the background there is the likes of Ray Liotta. It is probably one of the oddest casting roundups in recent cinematic history, and it could have worked if the script went beyond the typical juvenile humor and branched out more into some middle aged humor. I guess that's the trouble with releasing a middle aged comedy to the masses who are normally teenagers. Instead of some thinking humor we get a lot of gay jokes, gas jokes, people getting hit in the head, and things getting set on fire. Some of the jokes here are actually do bad that they make Martin Lawrence look good, but it does also have it's nice share of decent comedy. When "Wild Hogs" is funny, it's funny. And when it fails, it falls flat on its face. Perhaps it's a nice Sunday afternoon flick instead of an evening out.

"Wild Hogs" starts by introducing us to the four players. First is Doug, a married with two kids dentist who has just been told by his kid(in a not so subtle way) that he isn't cool enough. Then there is Dudley, a super nerd computer programmers who may even be a virgin. Dudley manages to make a complete fool of himself while trying to impress a girl in a coffee shop. Then there is Bobby, a plumber who wants to write a how-to book while also being constantly talked down by his daughter, his mother in law, and even his wife. Lastly there is Woody, who used to be a hot-shot lawyer married to a swimsuit model, until she decided to divorce him and he's broke. Now he spends his time yelling at the young kid who is hired to rake his leaves. It's at this point that Woody decides that he wants to run away from his problems, and he proposes to his friends that they go on a road trip. On their motor bikes like they would have in the old days. With a little hesitation they all decide to go, and they don their leather jackets and check the tires and set out for the Pacific Ocean. Everything is fine until they cross paths with Jack and his crew in a biker bar, who are all horrified right away at the "poser" bikers that came into the bar. Jack takes Dudley's bike and forces the Wild Hogs to go back home. But that isn't enough for Woody who goes back to the bar to retrieve Dudley's bike, which results in him blowing up their bar. Now Jack and his gang are on the Wild Hogs backs, looking for blood, while our hero's take refuge in the small town of Madrid where Dudley falls for a beautiful diner owner and the rest of them find the true pleasures of life.

I might have been able to forgive the awful script for "Wild Hogs" had the ensemble worked better together. But out of the four of them, I could only give any real credit to John Travolta and William H. Macy. Travolta knows that he isn't the greatest actor in the world, so at times it is even amusing to watch him go over the top. One of the biggest laughs for me involved him yelling at the young boy raking the leaves in his garden who demanded more money. "Grow up Toby!," he yells as he kicks an entire pile of leaves, "I hate you!" William H. Macy is pretty much good in any movie he is in, and he explores such a wide range of genres that he even pulls of the "lovable goofball" role perfectly. And then there is Tim Allen, who has his moments, but it is impossible to take him seriously. His character might have the most drama with him being the father of the son who is embarrassed by him, but he did that role for about seven years on TV. And I wish Martin Lawrence was far away from this movie, and he seriously did look lost at times. I don't even think he knew why he was doing this movie. Background characters like Ray Liotta do alright, M.C. Gainy is doing the tough biker role for a change(two people might get that joke), and Marisa Tomai does a lot of standing there without any lines or anything to do. There isn't really any point in her character whatsoever, except for someone for Macy to lock lips with. John C. McGinley from "Scrubs" did a decent little role as a cop who thinks that the four are gay and wants in.

All in all, "Wild Hogs" is just a lot of stale jokes that we've seen before. People get hit in the head a lot, and halfway through I began a little tally chart of the number of times Macy would ride on his bike to some bitchen' rock n' roll music, and then have the music stop right away the second he hits his head on a sign or a surfboard at one point. There were a lot of homosexual references, especially the fact that Dudley would often be seen sniffing Woody's hair or cuddling with him when he falls asleep. And then the standard gas jokes, which a movie like this can't avoid. While it does have some moments of decent comedy, "Wild Hogs" is just the same old thing all over again. If the cast was tweaked a little bit, or even had more chemistry, the script could be forgiven because it would be worth it to see the cast work off of each other, but this doesn't even have that going for it. Wait for the video-there is no rush to see it on the big screen.