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Strange Wilderness
By: M. Enois Duarte, 4.16.2009
The Movie Itself:
Coming off as one big mishmash of random ideas pieced together and labeled a movie, Strange Wilderness takes its title quite literally. Hollywood can indeed be a strange wilderness when producers are willing to finance such feeble comedies. It comes as no surprise then that Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions takes charge of this flick clearly aimed at a young male audience, but with enough foul-mouthed humor to deny them entry at the box office. A mix of the stoner, slacker, nature, and shock comedies, set the standards of enjoyment at mediocre and your expectations are still too high.
After the death of his father, Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) inherited a popular nature program with him as the host. Even with the help of his best friend and sound guy Fred Wolf (Allen Covert), the quality of the show diminishes and is on the brink of extinction. But when an old friend of his father's visits with promises of a map to Bigfoot's lair in Ecuador, Gaulke and his ragtag crew of incompetents spring into action to please television affiliates and save the show. Unfortunately, a rival nature show is also on the hunt and the "Strange Wilderness" team must work together to arrive at the location first while battling the wildlife they encounter on the way.
What follows is the typical rude and crude exploits from a troupe of stereotyped misfits. The lazy fat guy (Jonah Hill) literally adds nothing to the movie, but is just a bit too fond of joy buzzers to the crotch. The half-wit friend Wolf is balanced out by another half-wit fat guy (Broken Lizard's Kevin Heffernan), who suddenly admits to being an alcoholic for some unknown reason and appears to serve no other purpose. Justin Long is wasted (both figuratively and literally) as the stoner guy and serves only as a toked out stage prop. Tagging along as always is an attractive, would-never-be-caught-dead-with-these-guys woman (Ashley Scott), forced to tolerate their idiocy but soon falls for their foolishness.
Written by former SNL writers Peter Gaulke and Fred Wolf (with Wolf in the director's seat), the movie feels haphazard as it transitions from one juvenile joke to the next in a very awkward manner. Naming the two lead characters after themselves (which is stranger than the movie itself) gives the impression of an inside-joke that the audience is never privileged to. Once a decade-old series of sketch shorts, Strange Wilderness feels episodic, where its best attempts are wasted on the MST3K-style voice-over narrations of classic animal footage. Other schticks involving a gang member's lowrider, nitrous oxide, and a turkey in a very comprising position raises more eyebrows than laughter.
At the risk of their careers, Ernest Borgnine, as the pothead's uncle, and Robert Patrick, as a veteran with one very serious war injury, make for some painfully strange appearances. Stranger still is the lame attempt at emotional depth with Peter's desire to attain his father's success. The far and few in between funny moments are not enough to salvage this trek from being one of the most easily forgettable.
Rating: 2/10
The Presentation:
Paramount Home Entertainment unleashes Strange Wilderness with a satisfying picture quality that significantly improves upon its standard definition counterpart. Utilizing the AVC encode and presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the transfer retains a light grain structure for a pleasant film-like presentation. Unfortunately, there were a few times when it appeared slightly heavy, creating instances of chroma noise and a flattening of the image. Foreground and background objects are easily discernible, but the sharpness is nothing we've come to expect of high definition. Contrast and brightness are adequate for a movie of this budget with good clarity, strong whites, and surprisingly deep blacks, providing the image with some decent depth. Colors receive the biggest boost by being nicely saturated, and flesh tones look warm and healthy. In the end, this Blu-ray presentation is an acceptable upgrade from its DVD release.
Rating: 6.8/10
Despite being branded with a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, one shouldn't expect much from the movie's sound design, especially for being a comedy. Underwhelming as it may be, dialogue is well reproduced and intelligible throughout. The soundstage did most of the work, handling the sound effects and music with a satisfying low-frequency response. Most lacking was a dynamic range that truly penetrated the room or a sense of dimensional space. More often than not, all four channels were silent, never really giving the impression that the characters interacted outside of a sound studio. It isn't until the troupe finally reaches the jungles of South America that we enjoy some activity in the surround speakers with atmospheric effects of the wildlife. All in all, this is an average audio presentation with only minor moments of excitement.
Rating: 5.6/10
Overall Presentation: 6/10
** 9-10 = Reference / 8 = Excellent / 7 = Good /
6 = Satisfactory / 5 = Average / 4 & under = Below Average **
The Extras:
Already released last year on DVD, Strange Wilderness comes with a somewhat unexciting package of bonus material. All presented in standard definition, the featurettes really do nothing to make this movie any more enjoyable.
- Cooker's Song (5 min)
Jonah Hill wrote the song he performs in this unedited version of a scene in the RV.
- The Turkey (6 min)
F/X crew proudly talk about their work on creating the "amorous turkey."
- What do we do? (6 min)
An outtakes of sorts, cast and crew prep to film their roundtable discussion in the movie.
- Reel Comedy: Strange Wilderness (21 min)
Promotional piece from Comedy Central, it features behind-the-scenes clips and interviews.
- Deleted Scenes (22 min)
Collection of 13 scenes which were wisely removed from the final cut.
Rating: 3/10
Final Thoughts:
For a movie than could have easily gone the way of direct-to-video, Strange Wilderness might have its fans. But for more discerning audiences, its brand of humor is ten years too late and often annoying. The video and audio presentation is a decent upgrade from its DVD counterpart and worth the purchase for those who enjoy it.
Rating: 4/10
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