Something strange is going on
in
Somehow, it's become the social norm to look down on people who have refined
tastes. There used to be a time where people aspired to better
themselves, and took pride in being able to distinguish between the qualities
of things. Now, if someone has the opinion that something is not high in
quality, they are looked down upon for being elitist. The new
mantra for
has become "like what i like, and if you don't, then you are just being a
contrarian." Actually, I would probably be mocked for using
the word contrarian, but you get the point.
There's no better example of "the race to the bottom" than
movies. Box office numbers have become the new gage of quality, and
as long as the masses pay money, then the movie must be good. Wild
Hogs is the #1 movie in
so it must be good, right? Wrong. I don't care if every
single moron walks out of that theater laughing, it means nothing to
me. Mass appeal will never be an accurate gage of quality.
The sad part is that if you try to explain why a movie like Wild Hogs isn't
funny, the sheep get defensive. They try to make a strawman out of you,
claiming that your standards are too high. "I'm sorry, your holiness,
that not all movies are Michael Moore Documentaries." These are the
same people who wrongly assume that people who have heard of OPS can't actually
watch or enjoy a baseball game..that it's all just a bunch of data points in
their excel spreadsheets.
Every genre of every artform has quality work. There is "good"
pop music, just as there is pretentious Indy music. For the record,
I can appreciate the idea of a low brow comedy. The caveat being
that it has to be done right. And it's pretty obvious that today's
standards to get a movie green lit is not quality. A studio head
does not sit back and say "is this movie good?" but rather "will
this movie make money?"
My standard for comedy is pretty simple (and two fold). 1) Did it
make me laugh? I assume that's a pretty universal standard that everyone
adheres to. And of course, it's very subjective. People
are going to disagree according to their own tastes, and that's entirely
ok. However, people fail to account for the 2nd prong of the
test: 2) could I, or my friends, have come up with the same joke in under
10 minutes.
When I saw the trailer for Wild Hogs, I had the entire movie in my
head. Eventually, I will read reviews to see how accurate I am, but
here's my best guess:
4 middle aged men are having a mid-life crisis. They feel stuck in
a rut. They have stereotypical, nagging wives and kids who don't
appreciate them. One of them (my guess, the Travolta character, b/c
he's the only one who looks like he could pass for "cool") decides
they all need to have an adventure. Tim Allen is the
"normal" guy, Joe Everyman. He's the one that the (is
there a word for male soccer moms? there should be) soccer-dads will
relate to, and the soccer-moms will associate with their husbands.
The
know his real name, b/c i think he's a GREAT actor) will be the overly
whiney/scared character. A combination of Millhouse and Chucky (from Rug
Rats). Every time there's a mini adventure on the trip, he's going
to be the "voice of reason" and the one most scared about
it. Of course, towards the end of the movie, he'll step up and be
the bravest in the most dire of situations.
And Martin Lawrence will play the black friend.
Now that the players are out of the way, here's what's going to qualify as
laughs: 1) the guys, while trying to be cool, will be very
uncool. They'll buy biker clothes that aren't quite
right. It will look like they are trying too hard. I imagine
they'll shop together, and you'll get a few cut scenes of them coming out of
the dressing room with more and more ridiculous outfits.
2) They won't know how to operate their motorcycles. At first they'll be
driving off the road, not being able to steer and hitting semi movable objects
(trees? bushes?)
3) someone will slip in mud or feces. This will actually be a running
gag, as the guys get dirtier as the trip continues. By the end,
they will all look completely disheveled.
4) There will be a hot girl that will be one of the biker's love
interest. He'll do increasingly embarrassing things to win her
attention, and even though it would fail in real life, in the end, she finds
him quirky and charming.
5) The 4 guys will have a run-in with a real biker gang. It will start as
a misunderstanding, but will escalate until the guys have to fight
back. This is probably where the
guy steps up.
6) There will be a camp scene where they have trouble setting up the tent and
starting the fire. They will have to eat "wacky" food.
Perhaps a unique bowel movement will take place at the makeshift campsite.
7) The long arm of the law will be involved. Probably an incompetent cop
will follow them throughout the trip.
See, it took me about 10 minutes to write that. Thus, if I'm going
to enjoy this movie, it has to be something above and beyond that.
And I know if I had a little roundtable discussion with a handful of my
friends, we could make a much much better Wild Hogs in 10 minutes.
There's nothing more enraging then when a fan reviewer says "just sit back
and enjoy it. it's a comedy!" I sit back and enjoy comedy all
the time. Namely, when I'm hanging out with my friends.
If they can be funnier 1) on the fly, 2) all the time 3) without spending 80
million to produce their comedy and 4) not charge me 10 bucks, then why on
earth would I go see a movie? A show like family guy (back in its prime)
was as "low brow" as they could come. But it was done in a
original way. I could tell that the writers were not only funny, but that
the final product was the result of constant refining. I could see
how they started with an original draft that was funny, but that they kept
tweaking it to make it as funny as it could be. With Wild Hogs, all I can
see is some guy in a suit having a meeting with another guy in a suit and
daying "hey, how about 4 guys go on a road trip with motorcycles" and
the 2nd suit saying "great, run with it!"
Ok, now i'm looking at the reviews, and while it seems I was pretty accurate in
my prediction about the movie. One thing I missed was that their #1
joke is that these guys are not gay, but are put in gay situations. Oh
man, the hilarity!!!
NY
Times Article nails it
How about instead of going to see this movie, you just write the movie inside
your own head. Are people so dumb that they can't picture the jokes
without seeing it in the movie? Where's the
originality? How is this the #1 movie in
but Arrested Development was cancelled? AD had jokes that made me
go "man, even if i was given the topic, it would have taken me years to
craft that joke so perfectly".
According to Rotten
tomatos (18%) and Metacritics
(27) this movie is getting destroyed by the critics. Of course, there's
still no defense to "Fred J." who commented (in part)
The critics are showing their true colors by bashing this
film. The audience is already turning on them for their incompetent analysis of
the film. You have to wonder if these critics even bothered to watch the film.
... It's a comedy. Sit back, relax and take that stick out of your butt and
laugh a little. ...why are critics trying so hard to keep people away from an
unbelievably funny movie? Wonder if it touched a nerve with them, or wonder if
they just don't like one of the stars of the movie? Something is going on or
maybe the critics have lost their minds.
Yes, Fred, it's a nation wide conspiracy to keep down Wild Hogs. A movie
this powerful HAS to be stopped by the elite.
I can't even go on anymore. just rereading the "sit back,
relax" line is killing me.
Don't think,
it's not good for you. Hollywood will tell us what's funny, and
we'll agree.
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