Life on the Open Road Wild Hogs
Written: Oct 02 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Bang For The Buck |
 |
|
|
Pros: very talented cast, actually funny
Cons: rough beginning, some slow spots
The Bottom Line: Great light-hearted comedy that's cleaner than most recent comedies.
|
|
|
| wychic's Full Review: Wild Hogs |
The good folks at Netflix recently sent us another DVD off my husband's viewing list. Star-studded? Obviously. Non-stop laughs? Let's find out...
What we have here is a basic mid-life crisis movie in which four friends (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy) decide to hit the road on their Harleys for the wild blue yonder...
...literally. None of them have any idea where they're going and they throw away their cell phones at the start of their trip.
Throughout the movie these four do everything in their power to convince themselves that they are footloose and fancy-free...even though two have a wife and kids at home, one's supermodel wife just sent him divorce papers as he teeters on bankruptcy, and one really does have nothing tying him to home except the fact that he can't ride very well and probably hasn't been away from a computer for more than eight hours at a stretch in the last twenty years.
Everything is going great...until they walk into the wrong biker bar in New Mexico and a gang of thugs called the Del Fuegos (led by Ray Liotta as Jack) take exception to these big-city "posers" out there acting like real bikers. Well...let's just say there's an "explosive" departure from this gang that leaves them wanting to stop at nothing to find where the four friends went and make them die in very painful ways.
So, while said biker gang is following them these friends alight on a small town that has been terrorized by the Del Fuegos, but as it becomes clear that these four have nothing to do with them they're welcomed with open arms...and the bumbling computer geek falls for the owner of the town's cafe (played by Marisa Tomei).
To add to the mix there is an over-friendly gay policeman that has been following the friends from one state to the next after catching them all in bed together after they accidentally set fire to their tent.
Alright, so the plot is very simplistic and at the beginning of the movie I was seriously wondering whether it would even be worth watching. As the credits roll we get a brief introduction to each of the four main characters, then a nice monologue from John Travolta about how their lives are slipping away from them and they should do something about it. One really good laugh in the beginning, but it didn't really catch my attention.
As we go on the talents of these actors really begin to shine as with each increasingly improbable encounter they work together even better to really bring in the laughs.
Now, I've never been a huge fan of slapstick comedy and with the mass quantities of them my husband has been shoving down my throat each one just tends to make me queazy. This one didn't do that. I think if any less seasoned actors had tried this movie they would not have been able to pull it off, but with each of the main actors being big-name veterans and improvising almost every scene it made the film into something that most people couldn't write; the actors sincerely seem to be enjoying themselves throughout the movie and really liven it up for the viewers.
Also included in the cast were Paul Teutul Jr. and Paul Teutul Sr. (of the American Chopper series) plus an extensive cast of seasoned actors to complement the main stars. In a movie where the plot is pretty simple the acting will generally make or break the film (or, in a different kind of movie, it's the size and frequency of the explosions) and in this case they made some excellent decisions in casting that I daresay cost a pretty penny.
As for child appropriateness, there is some foul language and mild violence (but violence sans blood) along with a fairly hefty dose of gay humor so I would suggest a parental pre-viewing to determine if it's mild enough for your tastes.
All-in-all, this movie is good fun that really did make me laugh even in my state of "just shoot me if you're planning on making me watch another comedy!". I especially liked the absence of fart jokes (and almost complete absence of any other bodily function jokes) that seem to be more and more prevalent in recent films. There is a touch of romance thrown into the mix, as well as an ending that may not have been quite expected. In short, this movie is great light watching that I think was time as well spent as it can be in front of a TV.
Like good movies? See more in CaptainD's Good Movie Write-off
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Feel-good Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
wychic
|
 in Books |
|
Member: Rebecca Brown
Location: Sheridan, WY, USA
Reviews written: 490
Trusted by: 47 members
About Me:
Insane but completely harmless country gal
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.