Lord Taylor of Warwick

Rating scale:  = excellent , = good , = poor

I do not consider myself a movie snob. If a film lacks intellectual stimulation but delivers in other ways, I am still pleased. With Wild Hogs, though, I was offended by the lack of effort that seemed to go into it. The film boasts an all-star cast. Tim Allen plays a dentist trying to prove that he’s not boring. Martin Lawrence is the henpecked hubby on a search for respect. William H. Macy is apparently the comedic relief with a clumsy nature and fear of women.

Finally, John Travolta is the macho man who comes up with the idea of the road trip as a way to deal with, and cover up, his lost fortune and supermodel wife. The first half of the movie is lamentably predictable. The four men decide to take their little suburban bike club across the country to California. Easy laughs ensue: homosexual allusions, feces jokes, run-ins with wildlife, and the occasional tent fire. The film takes a turn from bad to worse when the Hogs become the target of a legitimate biker gang. They’re followed into a nearby town where the battle takes place. The conflicts are drawn out and tedious to watch. The town joins the four new heroes with, you guessed it, pitchforks. Before anything gets too nasty the founder of the bike gang (and also a star from the biker film “Easy Rider”) comes to put a stop to the fight by reminding the gang leader what being a biker is all about. The friendship of the four is simply not believable. All I saw was four movie stars looking for a chance to get their faces on screen at any cost. Tim Allen and John Travolta tried for laughs by depicting middle-aged men at their wit’s ends. Martin Lawrence’s performance was embarrassing. William H. Macy’s presence in this film is especially unfortunate after he did so well in films such as Seabiscuit and Magnolia. Perhaps there is an audience for this film that I’m not aware of. There are far too many sexually charged situations and jokes for it to be a family film. It’s too frustrating for the younger crowd to endure. Even the biking crowd would find it offensively bad. At first glance this film appeared to be a cute film about four men regaining their freedom. In the end, it’s the audience who end up wanting to leave town.

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