Wild Hogs

The other night, in between sending and receiving movies from Netflix we ended up with the kids in the living room with us for a few minutes and watched this movie.

From 2007 the movie had plenty of star power but did not receive good reviews. Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William Macy star as four middle aged friends who enjoy riding motorcycles together. As middle age settles heavily on them, boring jobs, demanding spouses, and realizing that the lives they have are not what they expected in their younger days they decide that they must do something to break out. In short they have become responsible, and thus boring, adults.

Woody, played by Travolta, urges them to take a cross country motorcycle trip. All agree and off they go. William H Macy plays Dudley, a computer programmer, and nerd of the group. Tim Allen is a dentist and Martin Lawrence a salesman whose wife has him on a very short leash.

The movie is not great. A few moments are funny, Macy is probably the actor with the strongest performance, playing against his normal type, and he does a good job. This movie is a far cry from The Cooler or Fargo.

Ray Liotta plays the leader of a real motorcycle gang who takes a strong exception to what he deems are pretenders. A funny scene is when he guesses and then criticizes the lifestyles that the Wild Hogs are stepping away from and when Dudley, Macy's character, amazed at his accuracy asks him " what color am I thinking of?" As I said the movie has it's moments.

Marissa Tomei plays a waitress who becomes a love interest of Dudley. Travolta and Allen are a bit muted in this movie, Lawrence has a few moments of over the top acting but Macy really is the strongest. Tomei is generally underrated, and enjoyable in this as well.

The reviews in some cases were pretty nasty. I surely did not think it was that bad. It was what it was, cute in some places, with some broad farce, but generally entertaining.

A special nod should go to Peter Fonda who has a small part in the movie as, what else, a legendary motorcycle figure. If your movie is about motorcycles and you get Peter Fonda in it cannot be all bad.

Pulp Fiction

This Quentin Tarantino movie from 1994 established him as one of the hottest directors around. The movie, something between a gangster, crime noir, camp sendup all with a modern nineties twist, is crazy good.

Told in a series of vignettes that are shown out of order the movie features dialogue that just goes on and on. Soliloquoy;s on religion, drugs, and pop culture are just a few of the sojourns the characters take.

The acting is fierce. First and formeost this movie is known as the movie that revitalized the career of John Travolta. Travolta whose career went on a ten year dip is so strong in this role. It is impossible to take your eyes off the screen when he is on it.

A short synopsis of the movie is hard to give. I will try. As the movie begins two small time robbers are eating breakfast at a diner when they decide to rob it. As they stand up to announce the robbery the opening credits role.

Then we join Jewels, played by Samuel L Jackson and the aforementioned Travolta as Vincent Vega. Jewels and Vega two hit men are on their way to a job and discuss Vega's recent three year trip to Europe. They then enter a house and steal a case, or retake a case, that belongs to their boss. In the process a few people get shot.

Then we meet the Boss Marcellus as he gives a large amount of money to Bruce Willis who plays Buddy Coolidge. Coolidge, a boxer, is being paid to take a dive.

From there we have an incredible scene with Travolta's Vega taking Marcellus's girl on a date. Uma Thurman is captivating, enchanting and lots of other adjectives even when she overdoses.

Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Roseanna Arquette, and in a memorable one scene performance Christopher Walken also appear in this movie.

This is a bueatifully shot movie. It is violent, gory and has more twelve letter curse words than any movie I have seen. With all that it is a very strong movie.

Old Dogs

We watched this movie the other night on Netflix. Funny thing was I watched for 35 minutes and then asked my wife when Tim Allen was in the movie. She said no that is Wild Hogs so I was not thinking the right movie when we ordered this one up.

However the movie was cute in places. There were several spots where I actually laughed out loud which I do not often do at movies.

Robin Williams and his brand of physical comedy can be funny.

The scene where the two are in a resteraunt and Travolta's character starts to hit on the waitress coincides with when the twosome is recognized as members of the grandparents club is quite funny.

In the funniest, yes silliest scene, Williams and Travolta switch medicines leading to Williams character losing his depth perception which leads to the physical humor Williams knows best, and Travolta develops facial paralysis which in the scene is funnier than it sounds.

Williams character reunites with his children in the movie and it is heartfelt. The movie is not great, it is barely good but it was an acceptable family movie in a time where that in itself is hard to find.