While the premise is clever, the cast is great, and the trailer gives all indication of a highly amusing ensemble, middle-aged comedy I was not really impressed with Wild Hogs overall. This is one of those comedies where they save almost all of the good out-of-context humor for the trailer and practically give away the plot to draw you into the theater, but never really offer much more.
More or less the basic premise is your four, suburban, middle-aged men who have had a bike "gang" for a number of years coming to the revelation of the total monotony of their lives. They decide to take a few days away from their families and inhibitions to relive the dreams of their youth, and thus a classic road trip comedy ensues.
First off, if I have to give the movie any praise it should go towards the four leads. William H. Macy, John Travolta, Tim Allen, and Martin Lawrence, despite being limited by some terrible dialogue and cookie cutter characters, for the most part give hilarious performances and have great on-screen chemistry with one another. In the end this helps work it towards the classic "Don't let anyone get you down" message, but that's really all I can say on the positive side.
The script is downright terrible. Through a large percentage of the movie I was trying to determine whether it was edited by 50 people with totally opposing ideas and no skill in writing dialogue, or if it was never edited and no one noticed it was written by someone with no skill in writing dialogue. Many times characters' motives for certain actions are either completely unfounded, or instantly noticeable, yet still pounded to the point where "obvious" becomes an understatement. Many minor characters fail due to the disappointing platter of lines they've been given, a contributing factor to why this may be the worst performance of Ray Liotta's career.
It rakes in some laughs, sometimes pushing the PG-13 envelope to its limits in a fashion quite unusual for a film that could've easily gotten a PG rating, if not for its intentional marketing to the 30-55 demographic (the same as its characters) its intended to reach; not daringly offensive to receive an R, nor kiddie enough for a PG, but trying its hardest to be as watered-down PG-13 as possible with its share of aptly fitting racial remarks, homosexual undertones, crude sex humor, and sporadic profanity.
The movie has some very good comedic moments, however, some of which are surprisingly clever and well-executed, but many that fall victim to many Hollywood comedy stereotypes, such as the "One main character who does something that only he and the audience knows about and we will milk humor from this for the entire middle act" syndrome and various others including the romantic redemption for the geek and the token black guy.
Overall, if you want a socially acceptable, moderately funny, assembly line comedy with the inspirational message you will see in about 20 other mainstream releases this year, you won't be disappointed. If you're looking for absolutely anything more competent, you've come to the wrong place.
