REEL FANS:Hittin’ the road with the ‘Hogs’

Daily Pilot staffer Sue Thoensen went to Edwards Big Newport 6 to get moviegoers’ opinions of “Wild Hogs,” starring John Travolta, William H. Macy, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence.

Doug Madsen (Tim Allen), Woody Stevens (John Travolta), Bobby Davis (Martin Lawrence), and Dudley Frank (William H. Macy) are the Wild Hogs — four middle-aged, motorcycle-bad-boy wannabes who take a road trip to escape the boredom and predictability of their lives.

Their cross-country trek gets down and dirty when they encounter a “real” biker gang — the Del Fuegos — in New Mexico, and circumstances force them to have to get of town fast.

“I thought the movie was fantastic — one of the better comedies I’ve seen in a while. I like the fact that you see four middle-aged guys getting on the road, having a good time. It was so funny, and I thought it was well cast — my favorite character was Dudley [William H. Macy]. I think everybody could relate to at least one of those guys and to that story — that they [the guys] needed to get out, they wanted to do something fun, they wanted to be free.”

Rob Hendrickson

Costa Mesa

“I thought it was a great comedy. The friendship in the movie was unbelievable. John Travolta played such an idiot, not telling his friends all the things that happened, but in the end they came together…. One of my favorite parts was the scene with the bull. The movie was really funny and well put together — something that’s light-hearted, and the fact is this could happen to middle-aged people. Maybe not the biker part of it, but for the most part I could really see this happening — people going out on an adventure together, friends doing it probably on a yearly basis, getting out and letting loose.”

Dina Hendrickson

Costa Mesa

“I thought the movie should have been called “Over the Hill Hogs,” and on my stupid-movie scale, it gets a 10. I didn’t like a thing about the movie. I laughed out of embarrassment a number of times. I thought, What a wonderful cast, and what a terrible waste. I thought the script was miserable. It started out like ‘City Slickers’ and went downhill from there. It could have been a good movie, and it was just a shoddy production.”

James Hamilton

Huntington Beach

“I thought the movie was hilarious — the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time. I could relate because of the age group, but the writers were fabulous from start to finish. Usually what you see in the trailers is the best of the best — uh uh — throughout the whole movie it was great. I thought the cast was fabulous — it was a good mixture. I loved John Travolta, but they each had their own style that made it perfect. The whole idea of the road trip, I just think that’s a great thing to do — typical mid-life-crisis type thing. I liked the adventure that they went on, and it was so funny I would go see it again.”

Leslie Duarte

Huntington Beach

“I thought the movie was great — I enjoyed everybody. I liked the characters, the writing, the concept, and I can relate because it’s my age group. I think getting that last hurrah in, it was really cute. I think you get settled in life, and then you forget to have fun sometimes. So this was a fun movie. There is stuff going on for all of us, so to forget about it — that’s why we go on vacation. But I like the road trip idea because it’s kind of carefree.”

Lynne Zontini

Fountain Valley

“I thought the movie was really good, but it could have been a little bit better. I thought it was more for middle-aged adults, just because of the fact that it seemed like it could be a movie for my parents to go watch — it wasn’t something that I really enjoyed, but I liked it because they were laughing. I was familiar with all the actors, but I like that they threw Martin Lawrence in there, because he was the younger, funnier one out of all of them. I thought the idea of the road trip was cool — it definitely was a good theme, and the way the whole plot was worked out. I could see myself, or even my dad and my uncle doing that — getting together with friends and trying to be cool and young again. I just saw a lot of my family in it, and I’d tell all my parent’s friends to go see it.”

Jared Zontini

Huntington Beach