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Wild Hogs
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (5th September 2007). |
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The Film
 Though the movie made a lot of money, nobody seemed to like it all that much. That's a shame because generally the movie is enjoyable, if a bit predictable. The humour is there, and a lot of it is chuckle-worthy. The problem comes with the tired plot and the humour that's too silly to be believable. Seriously, it's like a teen comedy at times. Four middle-aged men whose lives are not what they want it to be decide to leave the city on their hogs on a road trip, and quickly irk Ray Liotta and his gang of bikers by blowing up their bar. The fight is on, as the gang tries to get revenge on the foursome. Though the movie has an Oscar winner, Oscar nominees, Golden Globe winners and Golden Globe nominees, you won't really notice their talents here. Oh, all the actors do a very nice job, I'm not going to say otherwise, they just don't have that much of a hard job. None of them have to stretch their muscles or expand their filmographies to any sort of degree. Martin Lawrence, Tim Allen, William H. Macy and John Travolta do a nice job with their characters, but for some reason I particularly liked Martin Lawrence's character more than the others. The biggest problem comes with the humour, and its variable level of intellectualism. The humour never gets too high brow, but some of the jokes are just too silly to come even close to being believable. Mr. Macy's first gag isn't even funny because there's no way something like that would ever happen, making you wonder at how the rest of the movie will go. Luckily, it gets better, though pretty predictable. Once they meet Ray Liotta and John Travolta gets Mr. Macy's bike, you know how everything's going to go. You know that all the four men will go through some sort of self-realisation, trying to give the movie some kind of poignancy, but movies like 'American Beauty' and 'Easy Rider' have more to say than this one. All you have to do then is watch the silliness going on. There's nothing too bad about this movie. You get to see some very nice cameos, including one of the original Easy Riders himself! Even if the jokes are silly, the plot moves along pretty quickly and the joke is replaced by another gag. Overall, the movie is enjoyable if you don't think too hard. It's a movie aimed at middle-aged men who want something that speaks to them. Personally, I think 'Red Green's Duct Tape Forever' is a better middle-aged guy comedy, but this one is still enjoyable.
Video
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Buena Vista did a pretty good job with the picture. With the amount of extras on the disc, however, the picture should be a bit better. Overall, it's very nice but it's a bit on the soft side. The level of detail is very good, though, and it's pretty stable throughout the movie. One or two scenes may seem clearer or softer than the rest of the movie but for the most part the print is clear and pristine. There's little to no edge enhancement, no specks, no dirt, and no compression artifacts. The fast panning movements across the highways are smooth. The colours are natural and accurate. Black levels, shadow delineation and skin tones are all accurate and the palette is nicely reproduced. The picture is very good, though perhaps a little bit on the soft side.
Audio
The movie comes with English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. The audio is very good, though not perfect, in terms of speaker usage. The dialogue is always clear and clean, without muffling, hissing or popping. Nothing blocks it out, not even the hogs pounding out the mileage. The score is also very clear, mostly coming out from the front. The effects are also not the most accurate. Sure you have bikes coming from the back left or right, but many smaller sounds come from the centre speaker when the left or right will do. Other than that, the track is nicely robust and pretty enjoyable. English, French and Spanish subtitles are provided for people who wish to have them. All extras have optional English subtitles, as well.
Extras
The description on the back of the DVD makes the extras seem somewhat more robust than they actually are. What's on the disc, also, isn't too impressive. The first extra is an audio commentary by director Walt Becker and writer Brad Copeland. Though missing somewhat in enthusiasm, these guy guys have a lot of fun talking about their movie. Unfortunately, the fun doesn't translate too much to the viewer. They talk about (and praise) the actors and give out stories from the set. They point out all the adlibs and what was scripted (and, by extension, what was changed from the original script). One thing that is a bit annoying is that they talk about all the funny alternate takes and extra jokes that they had to take out. These things aren't on the disc, which is a shame. They also talk about locations and the big bar explosion. If you're a fan of the movie, then you can give this a listen, otherwise, you may want to skip it. Next up are a couple of featurettes. 'Bikes, Brawls and Burning Bars: The Making of "Wild Hogs"' (16:19) is a nice making-of, though never too detailed. You hear about the four guys training on and riding Harleys. The guys talk about the comedy aspect of the movie. The last fight sequence is also discussed. You see plenty of the foursome making fun of each other and laughing on set. 'How to Get Your Wife to Let You Buy a Motorcycle' (2:49) is a simple and fluffy piece with the stunt coordinator telling you how to convince your wife to let you buy a bike. He also talks about wearing leather and how the biker look seems menacing. There's far too many film clips here, and the whole thing seems like filler. A few Alternate/Deleted Scenes are next. There's an alternate ending (1:35) and 2 deleted scenes, 'Acute Molar Abscess' (1:15) and 'Chili Pepper Abuse' (1:19). The alternate ending has John C. McGinley, and isn't all that better or worse than the movie's actual ending. The molar scene has a tiny little line at the very end that explains another line later in the biker bar. The third scene is a small extension of what's in the movie and cutting it out doesn't change much. The first two scenes have a commentary by the director and the writer, and they mention why the scenes were changed and taken out. Nothing special, but some nice commments. Next up are some Outtakes (2:34). I've seen better than this reel. I'm sure it was a lot more fun on set than on the DVD. A few people mess up their lines, but this is mostly scenes from the four guys goofing off on set. Lastly are some Sneak Peeks for 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1:08), 'The Santa Clause 3' (2:22), 'The Invisible' (2:31), an anti-piracy ad (0:47), an ABC Family ad (0:32), 'Ugly Betty: Season One' (0:57) and 'Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete Third Season' have trailers. The first four are also start-up trailers. There's also one Easter Egg. This somewhat short (1:35) easter egg focuses on the participation of the American Chopper' guys, Paul Teutul and his older son. The father and son (Paul Jr.) talk about working on the movie and about the bikes they contributed to the filming.
Overall
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