Reviewing Whatever

Wild Hogs
2007, in theaters

You should know
I saw the cast on Oprah a while back, and thought the movie looked cute. Brian really wanted to see it, and I felt like seeing a movie without much caring which one.

So?
John Travolta’s character was named Woody, which I think was done purely as a shout-out to Tim Allen’s two turns as Buzz Lightyear (And was funny just for the mental image of Buzz saying “Woody, what is this [bleep]?”).

Ok, I got that out of the way. Now, the movie seemed like it was trying to be a true family movie, in that it had all different kinds of humor in hopes of appealing to every member of the family. And we all know how rarely that works. There’s poop jokes, mild homophobia to prove that this is completely heterosexual male bonding, plenty of semi-slapstick violence… really, nothing you can’t see on the Simpsons tonight at 6. Hmm, now there’s a movie I want to see.

But back to Wild Hogs. The premise is simple: four suburban men ride their motorcycles to their local suburban faux biker bar every weekend and complain about their dull lives. When Woody’s ex cleans him out in the divorce settlement, he decides he’s going on a road trip to escape his life, and talks his friends into going with him. While on the road trip, they manage to start a feud with a real biker gang, and take refuge in a small town during the chili festival. Hijinks ensue, as they tend to do.

Rating
Wait for video
It’s not a bad little movie, overall, and at times it was pretty fun. Still, I can’t in good conscience encourage you to spend $9 to see it. It should be coming to DVD pretty soon though; give it a rental.

The rest of the Internet
Beware of Spoilers
The IMDb page.
Rotten reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.
The Wikipedia page.
A review at The Hollywood Reporter.
A viscious review at Film Threat.
A review at Variety.
The Onion's A.V. Club
A review at Film Flap considers that the point of the movie may have been for its stars to have a good time.