| Product: |
Wild Hogs (DVD) |
| Date: |
21.03.08 (98 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Ray Liotta and McGinley
Disadvantages: A bit bland overall
Wild Hogs is the tale of four middle aged men who love big motorbikes and, having been friends for many years, go for regular little rides around their town in full biker gear. It is a reminder of the freedom they love, that they used to have in their younger days but now no longer truly have.
Doug (Tim Allen) is a dentist with a wife and young boy, Woody (John Travolta) is a man whose life is falling apart as he loses not only a wife but all his money as well.
Bobby (Martin Lawrence) wants to be a writer but his wife forces him back to work as a plumber and lastly Dudley (William H. Macy) is a computer geek who cannot even talk to women.
Wanting to get away from his problems Woody suggests that the Wild Hogs (the biker gang name they had in their youth) go on a journey, a road trip to the pacific coast. At first reluctant the others soon decide that it could actually be a good idea, that getting away from their stressful jobs, family and mundane lives could reinvigorate them and drag them out of the rut they are all in.
Of course things don't go entirely to plan and an encounter with a band of 'real' bikers in the own bar soon changes everything they hoped their trip would become.
Wild Hogs has a truly great cast, Travolta, Allen, Lawrence and Macy are a mix of characters, and actors for that matter, that perfectly complement each other. Add in the perfect casting of Ray Liotta as the head of the other biker gang, Marisa Tomei and Jill Hennessy as the main female characters, the always good Stephen Toblowsky (a comedy actor supreme) as the local sheriff and John C. McGinley
(from Scrubs) as a motorcycle cop and you have a very impressive cast.
Sadly as good as the cast is on paper it doesn't gel properly on screen. The biggest problem from the beginning is that you don't really understand why the Hogs are still friends after all these years, they really do not have anything in common anymore at all. The only connection is their biker past but that wouldn't really hold them together as friends.
Without that the whole friendship doesn't really come across at all and as that is the fulcrum around which the film revolves it is a big minus point.
It is all too predictable as well. The story has been seen so many times before that it needs something a little special added to it to make it a bit different, and the script really doesn't do anything much to make you laugh. That is what makes you fed up the most about this film, most of the so called jokes are just not funny and when a comedy is like that then there is very little to recommend it at all.
The cast do try very hard but the four main actors really don't do much at all to impress, though I will say that this is the first time I have actually quite liked Lawrence.
The two women are only really there to look good as their actual participation in the storyline is very minimal, it is certainly a waste of Tomei's talent, not that she seems to get much chance to show us how good she is these days, the curse of the Oscar winning actress still follows her after all this time.
Ray Liotta comes out best, his trademark scary, nasty character but with a good sense of comic timing fits in perfectly with his character. When he is on screen you can tell the difference between him and the four main stars.
Wild Hogs is a Saturday afternoon, completely undemanding film that would be fun to watch on Tv. It certainly isn't worth paying to see in any form, there just isn't enough comedy in it for any sort of expense.
Still if you like any of the actors and don't mind a very lightweight, amusing little foray into wish fulfilment then it may just be worth seeing... just!
Summary: As wild as a battery chicken
|
|
