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Wild Hogs

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Wild Hogs
promotional movie poster
Directed byWalt Becker
Written byBrad Copeland
Produced byKristin Burr
Todd Lieberman
Brian Robbins
Amy Sayres
Sharla Sumpter
Michael Tollin
StarringTim Allen
John Travolta
Martin Lawrence
William H. Macy
Ray Liotta
Marisa Tomei
CinematographyRobbie Greenberg
Edited byChristopher Greenbury
Music byTeddy Castellucci
Distributed byTouchstone Pictures
Release date
  • March 2, 2007 (2007-03-02)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million
Box office$253,625,427[1]

Wild Hogs is a 2007 action-adventure comedy film directed by Walt Becker and starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. It was released nationwide in the United States and Canada on March 2, 2007, though preview film screenings were held in select areas on February 24, 2007. The film has developed a significant cult following since then.

Plot

Doug Madsen (Allen), Woody Stevens (Travolta), Bobby Davis (Lawrence) and Dudley Frank (Macy) are four middle-aged suburban men in Cincinnati who find themselves frustrated with the pace of daily life and lack of adventure. Doug is a dentist who cannot seem to relate to his son Billy (Dominic Janes). Dudley is a computer programmer who is afraid to talk to women. Bobby is a plumber who dreams to one day write a how-to book on the subject of plumbing, but is made to work at The Firm by his wife Karen (Tichina Arnold). Woody is a rich lawyer who is married to a supermodel. When Woody finds out his wife is divorcing him and leaving him bankrupt, he suggests going on a motorcycle road trip to California.

Doug says to his family that he can't go because he cannot leave work. This leads his wife to say that he may be right and that the trip may not be right for a man his age. Doug is insulted by the idea of this insinuating that she thinks he is "lame". He tries to prove he is not by eating what he wants to eat, despite the fact he has high LDL. He goes into what the doctor calls a "catecholamine-induced supra-ventricular tachyarrhythmia" (stress-induced panic attack). While in the hospital, Doug talks with his wife, who convinces him to go on the trip.

After the first day's ride, the men lose their tent when Dudley accidentally throws gas onto the burning tent (thinking it was water). They are forced to all sleep on an air mattress that was spared because Bobby was too slow to blow it up and get it in the tent when they made camp.

The next morning the men encounter a gay highway patrolman (John C. McGinley) who is jealous of them on their trip and "threatens" to charge them with lewd behavior. The men go on and stop at a lake where they go skinny dipping, but they are interrupted by a family who stop to swim, but leave in horror when the men are revealed to be naked. They are then joined by the same patrolman, but escape. Stopping for fuel and food at a roadside bar, the men meet the Del Fuego gang, headed by the tough biker Jack (Ray Liotta) who recognizes the four men as "posers" and takes Dudley's bike. After riding a short distance away, Woody, disgraced by what just transpired, says they should go back and get Dudley's bike. The others refuse, so Woody walks back alone, steals the bike and cuts the fuel lines on the gang's bikes. He quickly drives back to the Wild Hogs, claiming that all he did was threaten to sue the Del Fuegos. The group continues on towards the Pacific.

The Del Fuegos realize what has happened and try to go after the Wild Hogs, but after their bikes stall, Jack accidentally drops his cigarette onto the line of fluid from where Woody cut the gas lines of the bikes. This causes a chain reaction that blows up the bar.

Because Woody is hesitant to stop for gas after he saw the bar explode when he looked in his rear-view mirror, the Wild Hogs end up running out of gas. The four end up in Madrid, New Mexico where they are mistaken for members of the Del Fuego group when they quickly grab pitchers of beer they haven't ordered and start guzzling them. Recovering from their thirst, they learn the Del Fuegos regularly terrorize the town, but the police force, which has very little training and no guns, can't do anything.

The four men re-evaluate their lives, especially when Doug, Woody, and Bobby do a "bull-slap" which ends up being painful for two of them and Dudley falls for Maggie (Marisa Tomei), the owner of the local diner.

Eventually, the four men are spotted and the Del Fuegos come to get their revenge. The two Del Fuegos call Jack and tell him the Wild Hogs are in Madrid ("I like Madrid. The ground's soft enough to bury them in!" says Jack) Bobby, believing that they are safe because of what Woody told them, squirts the two men with ketchup and mustard. The two Del Fuego scouts do not fight, because Jack told them not to hurt the Wild Hogs until he arrived. The Wild Hogs are proclaimed heroes.

The next day, the entire team of Del Fuegos shows up in Madrid. Woody reveals what happened at the Del Fuego bar and the truth behind his need to take the trip, upsetting the others. After the Del Fuegos threaten to burn Maggie's diner, Dudley stands up to the gang, but is captured. The others join Dudley, with Doug declaring that they aren't going to run, but are going to fight. They are easily outmatched by the Del Fuegos and are beat up badly, holding up against them to keep them busy. The townspeople arrive and threaten the Del Fuegos, when Damien Blade (Peter Fonda), Jack's father and the founder of the Del Fuegos, arrives. Blade berates Jack for letting four "posers" hold off an entire biker gang, questioning aloud just which side was the "posers", and telling Jack that the bar was nothing but an insurance scam. Blade tells the gang to leave town, and ride the open road until they remember what riding is really about, mentioning on his way out of town that Jack "takes after his mother".

Doug and Bobby's wives arrive, and the two finally learn to relate to their families. Bobby finally stands up to his wife and tells her that he is tired of her being controlling over him, and she apologizes for it. The Wild Hogs reach the West coast soon after and it ends when they get sidetracked by Dudley nearly wiping out, and crash into a tandem surfboard.

Cast

Travolta and Macy had previously worked together in the 1998 American drama film, A Civil Action. Liotta and Durand had previously appeared together in the 2006 action thriller Smokin' Aces. Martin Lawrence and John C. McGinley appeared in the buddy comedy 'Nothing to Lose' in 1997.

Motorcycles

Harley-Davidson provided the motorcycles for the making of this film.

Many of the motorcycles utilized by the Del Fuego gang were customized choppers. The motorcycle used by Jack featured the logo for Orange County Choppers run by Paul Teutul, Sr. with design work by Paul Teutul, Jr.. Both Teutuls have cameo appearances at the beginning of the film.

Tim Allen, a noted automotive designer and hobbyist, gave input to the design of his motorcycle. Of the bikes used in the film by the four main characters, his is the most customized model.

Background Notes

The Motorcycle Riders Association's classes on motorcycle safety often point to the opening sequence in the film Wild Hogs for examples of things not to do when riding.

Jill Hennessy, who portrays Doug's wife, is a motorcycle enthusiast herself.

Reception

Critical response

Wild Hogs opened on March 2, 2007 to mostly negative reviews. The film holds an average rating of 3.8/10 on website Rotten Tomatoes, with only 14% of 131 reviews being positive, but with 72% of 86633 users liking it.[2]

Ty Burr of The Boston Globe compared the film's merits to its titular motorcycles, believing it to be "a bumptious weekend ride... the engine could use tuning and the plugs are shot, but it gets you most of the way there." Although writing a negative review, Burr offered praise for the film's final act, believing it "takes a satisfying turn" and that, with the exception of Allen, each of the film's primary cast members "earned his designated chuckle." He also favorably compared the film to RV, another comedy film focusing on a road trip.[3]

Box office

Despite negative reviews, the film grossed $39.6 million in its opening weekend, ranking #1 in box office sales and nearly tripling the debut of fellow opener Zodiac.[4] The film performed well throughout its entire run, falling just 30.5% in its second weekend[5] and ultimately grossing $168.2 million domestically and $252.8 million worldwide,[1]becoming Travolta's first film since The General's Daughter in 1999 to gross over $100 million domestically.

Lawsuit

In March 2007, the Hells Angels filed suit against Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group alleging that the film used both the name and distinctive logo of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation without permission.[6]

DVD release

Wild Hogs was released on standard DVD and Blu-ray on August 14 2007.

Cancelled sequel

A sequel entitled Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride was planned to be made for release in 2011 reprising the main cast. In it, the boys were to take Dudley on one final ride around Europe before he marries Maggie. However, the film was cancelled.[7]

Awards and nominations

People's Choice Awards

  • 2008
    • Nominated- Favorite Movie Comedy

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=wildhogs.htm
  2. ^ "Wild Hogs". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-12-02. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Wild Hogs Movie Review – Wild Hogs Movie Trailer – The Boston Globe
  4. ^ Weekend Box Office Results for March 2–4, 2007
  5. ^ Wild Hogs (2007) – Weekend Box Office Results
  6. ^ 'Litigation against movie release' (March 8, 2006) and they rule., HAMC vs Walt Disney
  7. ^ "Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride". IMDB. Retrieved 2010-12-02. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

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