Waking Up in Reno is a 2002 American road comedy-drama film directed by Jordan Brady and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Charlize Theron, Patrick Swayze, and Natasha Richardson.

The screenplay by Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser focuses on two redneck couples taking a road trip from Little Rock to Reno to see a monster truck rally.

En route, they stop at an Amarillo, Texas restaurant where Lonnie Earl is determined to win a free dinner by consuming a 72-ounce steak and all the trimmings within an hour.

The following day they discover Darlene has found the ultimate way to avenge her husband's boorish treatment of her - she has donated the SUV he intended to sell when they returned home to be destroyed by an enormous, fire-breathing Robosaurus during the monster truck rally.

[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film 1½ stars, calling it "another one of those road comedies where Southern roots are supposed to make boring people seem colorful".

They're nice people whose problems are all solved with sitcom dialogue, and the profoundly traditional screenplay makes sure that love and family triumph in the end."

Every note rings false, for writers Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser have overlooked no stereotypes or clichés of small-town blue-collar speech, behavior, or tastes.

)"[6] Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted "the tepid script is neither satire nor farce, and the soap opera twists are far too tame to spark the material.

"[7] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote the film "offers big, fat, dumb laughs that may make you hate yourself for giving in.

He added, "Given the complete lack of urgency and inspiration in the material, [the] filmmakers have tried to give their work a semblance of life by all manner of desperate means - animated maps, jumpy editing, jokey narration and slumber-arresting musical cues, to little avail.