Review the Movie "Wild Hogs"

My dear one treated me today to a seat at the opening of "Wild Hogs". That movie will entertain even people who have never learned to value the two wheeled world. I do ride, passionately, so I am a smidgen biased, but this movie will still make you laugh even if you just don't want to. The official paid and trusted critics shot this movie down like a sewer cleaner at a white wedding but they were clearly not talking about, nor understanding the same movie we saw. This movie was some of the most fun I've had at a theatre in this decade. Read on...and mostly, ignore the "critics". This film was fun and romps and was not intended to please the "critics". It was clearly done to please the audience!

Tim Allen is at some of his level best, and delivers on a big screen persona that actually works with him as a dentist disgruntled over the arrival of middle-age as if it arrived one morning with no warning. In several scenes he is delivering on the comedy and simultaneously reaches through to the other senses in a way few can do...Robin Williams comes to mind. Look forward to finding Jill Hennessy as his wife playing an almost better than real dream wife and for her to do that with an almost perfectly believable flare. Usually the "perfect wife" as Hollywood portrays that comes through a bit corny, Jill Hennessy makes it happen in model fashion in this film.

Martin Lawrence breaks in as a believable and real regular guy who is tired of what his life has been but loves his family and what he stands for too much to bail out. He just wished he had earned respect and his life had worked out differently. He delivers a strong performance that actually milled that out consistently and with a very real like-ability. His wife, played by Tichina Arnold, plays a tough but understanding woman who had reached her limit with his faultering efforts to write and wanted him to return to actual paying work. It was fair enough but quickly one could understand why his was a job anyone would want to get away from. Even if that part was a bit overdone, Lawrence's skill brought his character thru that to deliver some honest crowd pleasing belly laughs as the film weaved its tale. Don't be off to the concessions during any of his scenes. As a Harley rider/enthusiast I feel compelled to ad he was also riding one of the finest Springer Softails ever laid to film.

William H. Macy was hysterical as a bumbling confused loveable life-long good-guy. He built well the part of having spent far too long, working too hard, doing work that was not developing him as a person. They had him on a 1200 Sportster which he gratuitously did crash in at least three seperate events. His success as a rider was often limited to his uncanny knack for not being hurt when he crashed. He actually had me wondering if he had some experience with that in real life. He was as funny as I have ever seen him and when the movie ends, the viewer is left feeling that they learned something from him about the validity of insisting on growing as a person in spite of life's demands and social institutions that espouse safety and risk reduction. In many ways his part is the best role delivery in the film.

John Travolta seemed to be having fun with this movie. He was not working in his traditional sense in any one scene. He just kept putting forth one more turn after another that fed the odd mix of stars and the mayhem resulting from their affiliation with each other. He continued to antagonize the film and those they encountered along the way as the instigator and weaver of the film's ultimate fabric. I found myself liking his character after he came clean with his buddies about his life's "conditions" and could actually relate some to most of his actions and motives in the movie. I would have liked to see a little more of what I know John Travolta is capable of but I gave him a break because the viewer can feel that he is truly having fun with this movie. His wit and down to earth charm-for-hire come thru in near every scene.

Ray Liotta played a very believable bad guy-nothing really new about that- and he delivered a performance that was clearly downplayed. He could have delivered much, much more. For the movie to do as it did, serve the purpose it was to serve and leave the audience to feel the smiles they were meant to find... what Liotta could do had to be downplayed. It wound up being an understandable fencing off of his skills.

The movie was about four "RUBS" -an acronym for rich urban bikers- who in a state of need for adventure take off from Cleveland for a road trip on four damned fine Harley Davidsons. (I just had to say that) They head for California and the general west coast. They do so with just enough actual effective planning for me to fairly say they knew little more than they would need gas money. Any biker will tell you that is a premise for a dream road trip. They found a way to get the audience around and into that in a way that eliminated the potential there for it to be cliche' and render it pointless to the film's value.

Things go rather badly right from the start. They were not accustomed to life in the rough and they wasted no time establishing that. While it is all delivered reasonably well, the viewer could tell at times when the directors or someone became a little lazy here and there. Still, though, the movie worked. The directors and movie makers depended heavily on the laughability factors of Lawrence and Allen and allowed Macy to build in. They should have used a bit more of Travolta's talent since they were counting so heavily on him to build this film's foundation. I could almost sense that he was holding back in places.

There was a little of the modern tendency to over work the humor and silliness of the recent Hollywood gay-a-normalcy thing here and there. Some overplayed parts by fill-in actors almost could have been left on the cutting room floor. Still though, the laughs were delivered. A little of the locker room ill-at-ease men feel in public nudity situations was played off with some over-acting on the part of a chance encounter in a swimming hole. A mini-van traveling family arrived and just dove into the swimming hole right after the RUBS started skinny dipping. After some far to friendly far to quick ram-shackle footage ran over the edge they all ran off in fear back to their minivan lost in panic over ...whatever? I thought that could have been done better. Right after that a second encounter with a gay cop continued to lay a heavy hammer to an already sort of burnt out overworked scene. Those two poorly handled events together like that actually could have killed the film, but together, the strong actors did bring it back up, keep it together and make it work. If you need popcorn, get it when they are in the swimming hole.

Soon, they stopped at a biker bar and came into some less than favorable contact with a "Hollywoodized" biker gang called the "Del Fuegos" of which Liotta was the half-crazed leader. His almost totally nuts side-kick added a distinct toothy flavor to the film. The bullshit Hollywood depiction of the biker gang as a fresh from the penitentiary pack of madmen is something that actually served a slight purpose in this film. The belief that the best parts of that particular encounter were laying on the cutting room floor would not clear my thoughts. That could have been a lot better and while Liotta and his nut sidekick homed in the reality OK, and Travolta, Allen, Lawrence and Macy did well, something was still missing from that which I wished had not been removed. However, having not seen it before the scissors attacked, I can't say exactly what that missing something was.

The four "RUBS" rubbed the authentic bikers the wrong way and I won't spoil that part for you, but, once more, Travolta, in a way that actually felt like he was having fun with his part added a little more life to the encounter with the Del Fuegos than any ordinary four RUBs would want. That was another part I think could have been handled a bit better with regard to Travolta's character. They played out his reluctance and apprehension too long and Travolta did not pull that insincerity and dishonesty off very well. He is an honest actor and he is in your face good at what he does, maybe because of that he doesn't do a liar very well. I found myself able to forgive that enough to let it slide. And when he redeems himself later, his character comes right back up.

Enter at this point a small western town, a few friendly locals who are all too well familiar with the Del Fuegos which ad up to some good clean laughs and fun. Here too is the first real love for Macy-which is played very well by Marisa Tomei. Macy emerges as an unlikely and unselfish hero, all the while accomplishing really nothing more than his own survival, yet does so with a slapstick flare and pizz-azz that is star quality. And, he does it all with an old US Army Air Corp leather helmet on his head that gives him a subconscious appeal as a caricature of a bunny rabbit.

The movie ends with an iconic cameo by Peter Fonda, a true to life biker and riding enthusiast who enters long enough to make one prophetic statement which seems to serve to set all things slanted back to a harmonic balance. He redeems the "real biker" and puts the spit and polish back into the air which is the respect and love for the wind, the ride and the brotherhood of the bike. Peter Fonda is a treat when he appears as who he is...which is a true American Biker.

Peace is finally triumphally restored, everyone on both sides of the conflicting issues seem to wind-up with a little more confidence in the overall good in life and the RUBS do accomplish their goal of seeing the west coast from the saddles of their scooters. There are scores of fine supporting work done by many players of smaller parts who all stick to a place inside us and there are moments of sincerity and even some very real tension and enthusiasm.

There are some great riding scenes. In addition, some truly picturesque landscapes well known to any biker who has laid rubber to road, which can be appreciated by riders as well as those who wish they were. The film has something for everyone.

It is not intended to be intelligent, it is intended to be fun and it is. There are laughs, tales and dreams playing out on the screen by performers who actually deliver that as if dreams are a package that people want.

Go to the theater and see this movie. Plan to laugh and don't go looking for serious, or for solutions to the world's problems. This movie is made to make you laugh, it aspires to make you feel good, and maybe for some, to make you dream...and it does that.

In a closing note, I suggest you sit tight and watch the credits play out. There is a fun little ditty in the end during the credits in which the Del Fuegos learn that the "RUBS" are not all bad, and that good things can happen even to "bad" people. And Liotta excels here again in an unexpected vein of talent we never expected...or, maybe we could have...