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Wild
Hogs
2007 / Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Length: 100
minutes
The year started off with the
best of intentions, two major movies using motorcycles as
the story's, um vehicle.
The first to hit the major
screens and consequently released on DVD was
Ghost Rider.
Okay. Next!
For all the bad
taste Ghost Rider may've left in the riding enthusiasts
mouth, Wild Hogs is here to cleanse the palette
like some fine wine.
 Okay, not exactly a fine wine,
but certainly one of those $10 bottles, great to bring out
when friends come around who you don't have to try and impress.
Nice, inexpensive entertaining that's more about the people
than the wine.
This movie is just that, pure
entertainment for the fun of it that doesn't set out be
neither hardcore biker nor apologetic about it's light
material.
The movie surely has critics
wondering how this road flick starring an ever-changing
demographic and stereotype such as the biker being one of the years
first huge hits? Sure it reaches for clichés us bikers would
rather not have out there, a quartet of middle-aged men
crossing the country on motorcycles as a way of dealing with
their supposed midlife crisis. But the movie is reprieved by
it's big-name cast who obviously take the film and its
mechanical star, the motorcycle to heart.
The movie is unbelievable for serious riders on quite a few
levels; all four are in a mid-life crisis (media alert! -
please stop re-enforcing this myth), they embark on a cross
country trip without any apparent change of clothes or cellphones and they seriously race along having
conversations without windshields (can anyone say CHiPs).
But it manages to capture the
friendship and camaraderie that riding has at its very core.
To be fair, the writers go to
the extreme stereotype for motorcycle gangs as well, so the weekend
warriors shouldn't feel too singled out. Even the town and
it's residents are taken from some bad 1950's B-movie biker
flick, scared and helpless to do anything against the local
bad boys. This seems to be the
secret of this movie, it makes fun of all stereotypes and
characters with the different actors playing it up perfectly.
Everyone will have their own
favorite characters, except for Ray Liotta who seemingly
didn't realize he was supposed to start acting at one point.
His role as the gang's active leader was written with so much
tongue in cheek, a lot more could've been done with the
role. Peter Fonda manages to act circles around him for the few seconds
of screen time given to 'Captain America'.
Is this ever going to be
considered of the caliber of an Easy Rider? Definitely not.
But it is good fun and an excellent comedy, worthy of the
DVD collection and certainly worth a rental.
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