“Wild Hogs” — Biker buddies Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy are not all that wild, and more importantly, not all that funny.

The road romp from director Walt Becker is like his “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder” on Maalox, the humor and hijinks tame and tranquil as though it were a middle-aged epilogue to that raunchy campus comedy. The filmmakers simply fashion an excuse to send their weekend motorcyclists onto a cross-country road trip, then string together uninspired encounters with some fellow travelers and a hardcore biker gang headed by Ray Liotta, whose enthusiastic bad-boy performance is wasted in a woefully underwritten role. Marisa Tomei, Jill Hennessy and Tichina Arnold barely register as wives or lovers of our heroes. Most of the jokes and gags are boring or outright annoying, but the movie does have a surprise guest appearance that will amuse biker-film fans. PG-13 for crude and sexual content and some violence. 99 min. HH

“Zodiac” — David Fincher is a director of estimable talents. He’s technically imaginative with a great eye for detail and a feel for mood. In films like “Se7en,” “Fight Club” and “Panic Room,” he sets a scene, sucks you in and shows you over and over that you’re in the hands of a visual master. His abilities have often made him seem like a bit of a showoff — which is partly what makes the comparative aesthetic subtlety here so striking. In telling the real-life story of a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early ’70s, he makes you feel as if you’re watching a film that was actually made during that time. It’s low-key, straightforward, a bit faded. But in toning things down, Fincher also drags them out. “Zodiac” runs an astonishing two hours and 40 minutes, and it feels like it. It’s solid for the first hour and a half: taut and tense, thrilling and often darkly funny. It also features some excellent performances from a strong cast, including Mark Ruffalo as a tenacious San Francisco police detective and Robert Downey Jr. as a self-destructive Chronicle reporter. But as the obsessed Robert Graysmith, who tried to solve the case on his own, Jake Gyllenhaal is both the central figure and the weakest link. R for some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images. 160 min. HH1⁄2