Wild Hogs: A Review of Sorts

Feeling lulled into the seemingly all-star cast of Martin Lawrence, John Travolta, William H. Macy, and Tim Allen? Thinking to yourself, "This should be a laugh!"? Add to that Ray Liotta and Marisa Tomei, the two guys from Cheap Seats on ESPN and the other half of Jack Black's band "Tenacious D?" and think you've got a case of comic genius on your hands? WRONG!

I am sharing my mounting disappointment in this movie with you to spare you from this sad mirage of a good movie, filled with over-the-top "jokes" and terrible overacting and not in a Naked Gun type of way. This is one of those instances where I was looking for something even just remotely marginal for a Friday night movie but it turned into a two-hour waste that made me wish that movie theaters gave refunds for showing you crap.

Sounds harsh, yes. Quick recap: four men-friends, sick of their suburbia-lives, take to the open road on their bikes for a cross-country breather, where they run into a motorcycle gang who steals one of their bikes, then they get it back, blow up the biker's bar, save a town, and return home as happier men. I swear I thought that somewhere in there, between the four of them, there should have been at least one joke that was funny. And there was one in there, but it wasn't even delivered by them, it was delivered by a sheriff who doesn't carry a gun during a scene where the guys were all taking a turn slapping a bull's ass. So there you go. That one joke earned this movie a half a Peep because I actually laughed out loud on that one. But Evan and I spent most of the movie looking at each other in disbelief and shaking our heads at the myriad of non-funny ridicu-jokes. Half a Peep. Stinky movie. I shoulda known.

Holiday Chick Flick: The Holiday

Movie: The Holiday
Christie Rating: 3 and 1/2 Snowman-shaped Peeps

I forget sometimes how much I love going to the movies when I haven't been in a long time, despite the overpriced popcorn and diet coke ($10) and I always think I have to go more often. This time, I really do mean it. There are a few movies I want to see right now, and last night with pregnant friend in tow, we set out for the late late movie (10pm for me is late, I felt like a bad girl leaving the house at 9:30!). We saw the Holiday.

What caught me on this one? The great fail-safe cast: Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and my favorite, Jack Black, whose random humor and ability to act stupid in public places cracks me up and really it makes me feel like he could be one of my friends. I even love his band "Tenacious D". The very long beginning of the movie goes through a barrage of tearful break-ups in setting up for Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet's characters to want to up and flee the country from their former loves and former selves, for a stress-free holiday. The pair meet up on a house-swap website, decide to swap houses for two-weeks and flee the very next day.

The rest is somewhat predictable, their adventures in strange places, yada yada yada, meeting strange new people for the next two weeks, and eventually finding themselves, and even finding love. Which is a really cute premise anyway, despite its predictability and I enjoyed the ride for the most part, except for, yes, the what I like to call "frolicking in the fields" scene.. which is a nearly nauseating, very long scene where Jude Law is chasing Cameron Diaz around an English tea garden, laughing and playing, all set to music. It is the epitome of corny and scenes like these always make me feel embarrassed, and I watch them through my fingers. On the other hand, maybe it was just PMS, but I actually did find myself tearing up twice in the movie: once when you found out why Jude Law was a "single" guy, and once when Cameron Diaz had her big character realization near the end of the film.

Overall, The Holiday was extremely chick-flick-like in nature, over-the-top corny in some places, and a little longer than I would have liked. Also, as a practical, somewhat jaded 30-something, the idea of finding love love, I mean the real kind, in just 2 weeks is a little hard for me to stomach, but who cares, right? It's a movie and that's what happens in the movies, and it was a great escape, which is what I was looking for anyway, right? I give it three and a half Snowman-shaped Peeps.