Wild Hogs Release Date: March 2, 2007 Starring: John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy, Marisa Tomei, Tichina Arnold Directed by: Walt Becker
Formulaic from start to finish, buddy movies tend to end predictably and neatly tie up loose ends frayed at the beginning of the film. The trick to making a good one rests in a likable cast and characters that go through charming trials and tribulations. If the plot's contortions are funny, that's a plus. Wild Hogs, directed by Van Wilder's Walt Becker, has the requisite likeable cast in Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy, but the combination never quite works.
Travolta et al play Boomers who set off to recapture their lost youth by motorcycling from Cincinnati to the West coast, ditching cell phones, maps, and, apparently, their good judgment. Each man has personal issues. Travolta's Woody lost his wealth and his supermodel wife, Allen's Doug has a son who thinks he's dullsville, Lawrence's Bobby is married to a woman who constantly belittles him, and Macy's Dudley is a computer nerd who, even well into his 40s, can't muster the courage to speak to the opposite sex.
While each actor is talented in his own right, the on-screen friends' relationship is barely developed. Woody and Doug went to college together, but the other two... Well, we don't know. And throughout the film, the men don't seem to be bonding so much as acting at each other. Sadly, even then their trademark personality quirks rarely shine through. On a male bonding quest, one might expect to see a heavy dose of Tim "The Tool Man" Allen a la Home Improvement, but there is rarely a grunt to be heard.
Martin Lawrence has one scene to unleash his crazy brand of humor, but he spends most of the film submerged in the uncrazy gloominess of his hen-pecked character.
If you believe Wild Hogs, the aging male prefers his jokes goofy, scatological, loaded with gay references (though even the effeminate, cologne-sniffing, leather-loving Dudley can't actually be gay), and wholly unoriginal. He likes his women leggy and doting, and he likes a good fight scene. If you are this man, Hogs is bound to be a treat. For the rest of us, not so much.
