Wild Hogs 2007

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It's immediately forgettable but not inordinately painful, more like a routine cleaning at the dentist's than a root canal. Read more

Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News: A formulaic laugh machine that's entirely predictable. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Is this the best we can do in the realm of star-driven commercial comedy? If so, I'll take Norbit. I'll take Because I Said So. I'll take I'll Take Sweden. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Slack direction from Walt Becker (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) sullies this formula comedy, but the cast is agreeable, particularly Marisa Tomei as the diner owner who falls for the constipated Macy. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie frees you of the belief that making it in Hollywood requires finely honed skills. If the writer and director of this coarsely honed sitcom could get hired, then the studio doors must be wide open. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Of the major stars, it's Macy, not surprisingly, who offers the most texture, soul and self-deprecating humor in this light but appealing comedy. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Travolta has occasionally gotten down in slop like this before. Allen and Lawrence practically live there. But Macy, the guy from Fargo and Magnolia and Seabiscuit? Say it ain't so, Bill. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Wild Hogs really doesn't spend much time on the road. Good thing, too, because after the guys are found sleeping side-by-side and skinny-dipping together, the writers must have run out of homosexual panic jokes. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Never fails to take the low road. It's a waste of celluloid, filled with potty humor, gay jokes and the unfortunate transformation of real actor William H. Macy into a living crash-test dummy. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The film's a bumptious weekend ride: The engine could use tuning and the plugs are shot, but it gets you most of the way there. Read more

Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times: The landscape of Wild Hogs is cluttered with the comic equivalent of suburban sprawl, an endless cyclorama of rehashed jokes and whiny complaint. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Wild Hogs isn't wild so much as a mild evocation of better fish-out-of-water flicks. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Even Chevy Chase wouldn't be caught dead doing this stuff. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Eminently forgettable. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Women, hmmmph! Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: I'll take a crashing yet sincerely aimed failure any day over the by-the-numbers, lowbrow audience-pandering slickness of Wild Hogs. Read more

Roger Moore, Dallas Morning News: This could have been a City Slickers on cycles. But it's an incredibly lazy movie, from the on-the-nose casting to the soundtrack ('70s vintage road rock) to the script to the scouting of locations. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: There really isn't much more to say about Wild Hogs beyond the appallingly unfunny results it extracts from squeezing Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy into leather jackets and propping them on high-performance motorcycles. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: It's a joyless cross-country romp in which the heroes confront crazy animals, lascivious hicks and rest-stop bathroom horrors. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: What financial strings had to be pulled to get John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy to sign on for this second-class City Slickers? Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: 'A lot can happen on the road to nowhere,' reads the tagline on the poster for Wild Hogs, a comedy that also illustrates exactly how nothing can happen on the road to nowhere. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A little cute cussing, a few decent jokes, a lot of sight gags involving spills on the bikes these 'Mild' Hogs get by on being good-natured, and willing to trade a little star power for the chance to ride and get paid for it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Wild Hogs is more tired, worn out, and sagging than its protagonists -- an arthritic comedy whose humor is below mediocre and whose drama is cringe-worthy. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Perhaps it's not within the purview of a mere critic to question the judgment if not the sanity of Disney executives who green-lit this travesty, but who exactly did they envision to be the audience? Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: If Wild Hogs went hog wild into comic anarchy -- heck, even creativity -- it might have been worthy of its overqualified cast. As it stands, this weak effort will bring them sacks of money, but no respect. Read more

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: This is just another waste of time I'd really hate for you to undergo -- and pay for. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Allegedly, the picture was shot in picturesque New Mexico. Effectively, it might as well be picturesque New Liskeard. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Boy, is this one lame wheezer of a movie. Wild Hogs actually feels as though it might take longer to watch than it did to write. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Petrol-headed fifty-somethings into Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers will probably relate to some of the funnier scenes. The rest, including pre-teens, are advised to avoid it like el plago. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: This collection of gags on male menopause, genuinely offensive gay-cop jokes and bumper-sticker life lessons is beyond intolerable. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: This movie stinks of exhaust and desperation. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Uninspired script and broad slapstick yuks won't earn this any plaudits, but slick, safe package should do OK with North American mall auds. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: This shallow comedy imagines itself as an amalgam of St. Elmo's Fire, The Wild Bunch, and Deliverance. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The gags are witless and surprisingly gross (insect splatter, feces disposal bags, inadvertent homosexual come-ons and the like). The four actors, each accustomed to being at the center, never develop any rhythm, any chemistry, any anything. Read more