Four suburban guys, all losers in different ways, go on a cross country trip on their Hogs – that’s Harley Davidsons to the uninitiated. The guys are John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. En route to wherever they get mistaken for gays, find themselves on the wrong side of a group of real, hairy assed bikers (led by Ray Liotta) and one of them even finds love with a waitress (Marisa Tomei in a cheerleader-ish succession of “I’m hot” poses).
Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence as buddies? Yes, it’s a stretch, but no more than imagining William H Macy and John Travolta cracking open a couple of beers after a hard day. But the big question about Wild Hogs is not “is this movie funny?” – scripted by Arrested Development writer Brad Copeland, it certainly has its guffaw-inducing moments – but “who is it for?” Judging by the twee Preston Sturges/Frank Capra depiction of smalltown America, the soundtrack heavy with the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Me Generation self-help manual themes and Tim Allen’s character’s assertion that, at 54, he’s only “technically” middle aged, the answer would appear to be – people who are dead or no longer go to the movies.
Wild Hogs – at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2007
