Reviewing the Movie Wild Hogs

I'm a sucker for any movie with John Travolta in it. He doesn't even have to be particularly good in the film, although he is often outstanding. I particularly like Travolta in comedies. He can be amazingly funny when he sets his mind to it. I'm also a fan of Tim Allen. I've loved him since the days of "Tool Time." He, too, is simply delightful to watch on any screen, small or big.

Put Travolta and Allen together in a movie and I'm in film heaven. Add in the incomparable William Macy and I'm in for the count. So obviously, when the movie "Wild Hogs" hit the video shelves yesterday, I was one of the first in line to rent it.

While there is no denying that "Wild Hogs" is just frivolous fun; not a cinematic masterpiece, I see nothing wrong with a film that simply wants to make you laugh. Laugh I did, often and loud. It was just what the doctor ordered.

"Wild Hogs" is about four middle-aged men that don't realize they are in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Doug Madesen (played by Allen) is a bored dentist who is tired of watching his cholesterol and keeping up his humdrum pace. Woody Stevens (played by Travolta) is a former big wig whose swimsuit model wife has just left him. On top of that, he finds out that he is flat broke.

Bobby David (played by Martin Lawrence) is an aspiring writer who also works as a plumber in order to keep his wife off his back. Rounding out the foursome is Dudley Frank (played by William Macy), a computer nerd who has always been unlucky in love.

Woody decides it is time for the foursome to take a real trip on their motorcycles; cross-country from Ohio to L.A. At first the other Hogs don't want to go but eventually decide to take the plunge. The group takes off without a map and with no particular plans. They don't take cells phones and carry very little in the way of equipment.

As might be expected, the Hogs run into all kinds of problems along the trip. One of the most hilarious scenes is when they decide to go skinny-dipping in a pond, just as a family of four decides they want to take a swim as well.