WILD HOGS [PG-13]
This chrome-and-steel City Slickers may be gimmicky — four middle-aged buddies go on a cross-country motorcycle trip to solve a problem in each of their lives — but it rises above that with a solid cast and more than just a saddlebag’s full of laughs along the way. Able comic actors John Travolta and Tim Allen may be the marquee value here, but also-stars Martin Lawrence and especially William H. Macy get the most laughs. “My Name Is Earl” producer Brad Copeland steps up with a script that bests the movie’s trailer at most turns, and also manages to make John C. McGinley’s gay trooper funny without demeaning him. As insubstantial as it ultimately is, it is still a heartily entertaining nosh to slake us until the spate of summer releases hit the road. –Robert Newton