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The Movie:
Peter Gaulke's (Steve Zahn) father was the undisputed king of the wilderness show, having hosted his show, Strange Wilderness, for years. When he passed on and left the show to his son, however, things took a turn for the worse. Peter didn't have the brains or the work ethic that his father had and as such, he's been bumped to the 3am slot on the local station. But when the programming manager decides that the content of Peter's show isn't even good enough for that slot, he decides that Gaulke and his crew have got to go and he gives them two weeks to finish up.
Peter meets with his team - the soundman Fred (Allen Covert), his cameraman Milas (Ernest Borgnine),and Milas' stoner son Junior (Justin Long) and crewmembers Cooker (Jonah Hill) and Danny (Peter Dante). They decide that what they need to do is bring in one last killer show to convince the station to keep Strange Wilderness on the air and in turn, keep themselves employed. They plan a route with their travel agent, Cheryl (Ashley Scott), and hire a new animal handler named Whitaker (Kevin Heffernan) and pile into an RV to drive to Mexico where, according to a contact named Bill Calhoun (Joe Don Baker), Bigfoot can be found.
This all sounds good on paper but what Pete doesn't realize is that his animal show rival, Sky Pierson (Harry Hamlin) and his crew are going to try and beat them all to the punch. Calhoun puts them in touch with a tracker named Guys Hayden (Robert Patrick) but that may not be enough, particularly when you consider that Pete and his team aren't the brightest bunch of nature show zealots out there.
Where do we start...Strange Wilderness is crass, low brow, childish, and stupid but those aren't necessarily flaws in a screwball comedy like this one. The real problems with Strange Wilderness is that it's just not very funny. Yeah, there's a lot of drug references and dick jokes and a neat fake turkey that gives Steve Zahn a hummer and yeah Joe Don Baker and Ernest Borgnine pop up to presumably give the movie some sort of thespian credibility (likely they just wanted a quick paycheck) but none of this amounts to much. The movie has a few funny moments here and there - the turkey gag is amusing if predictable and the bits with the shark is kind of funny as is a one time gag about tattooed eyelids but these are really just fleeting moments that pepper a short eighty-four minute film that really elicits no more than a few chuckles.
The problem isn't with the performers. Zahn and company do a reasonably decent job with the physical comedy and with their delivery but when the script seems more content to throw in a bunch of random, crass sight gags rather than give any context to the material that could, in turn, actually make it funny then there's only so much a good cast can help the picture. A lot of the people in this cast have appeared in some honestly hilarious films like Super Troopers, Superbad, and Happy Gilmore but Strange Wilderness, like most of director Fred Wolf's other films (he wrote Joe Dirt, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star and Little Nicky) falls short of the mark. There was a lot of potential here with this cast, and it's an honest shame that the picture doesn't take off like it should, but a dud's a dud no matter how high one's hopes are going in.
The DVD
Video:
Strange Wilderness looks alright in the 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD. Print damage is almost entirely absent and only a light hint of grain shows up in a few scenes. Color reproduction looks nice and accurate and there's a fair bit of detail present in the foreground and the background of the image. There aren't any noticeable issues with mpeg compression artifacts though some aliasing can be seen along diagonal lines in a couple of spots. Detail could be a little better in some of the darker scenes (look at the part where Baker talks to Zahn in his cabin - it's very murky behind Baker) but this isn't a constant, rather it's incidental. Over all, the movie looks just as good as you'd expect a recent production to look on DVD.
Sound:
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix is nice and bouncy with some great channel separation in a few scenes and consistently clean, clear dialogue. Bass response is strong and there are no problems with hiss or distortion to complain about. An optional Spanish language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix is included and removable subtitles are provided in English, French and Spanish.
Extras:
First up are a few features (all three of which are in anamorphic widescreen, interlaced) starting with Cooker's Song (5:47) which is a look at the scene where Jonah Hill sings in the RV about his problems at home with his father and his step-mother. There's no interviews or real context here, it's simply a fly-on-the-wall account of that one particular moment from the film as it was being shot.
The Turkey (6:46) brings us onto the set with the effects technicians who show us how the scene were Zahn finds himself attached to the mouth of an amorous turkey was shot. We hear from some of the guys who made the turkey about how it works and why it works that way, and we get a look behind the scenes as this material was brought to life.
What Do We Do? (6:04) is little more than some on set footage shot during the scene where the cast of the Strange Wilderness TV show meet in a boardroom to talk about their plans. There is some fun improvising here and it's nice to see Borgnine show up and get a few jabs in with the rest of the cast but it's fairly disposable.
Reel Comedy: Strange Wilderness (21:14. fullframe, interlaced) is a promotional piece disguised as a set visit. An interviewer talks to Zahn on set while the film was being shot about the picture and we see a few random films being shot. We get a few clips from the film and some interviews with a few of the other cast members but this is really nothing more than an EPK piece.
A selection of six Deleted Scenes are included here, available on their own or by way of a handy-dandy 'play all' button. The scenes are as follows: Four Things (0:41, Cooker talks to Peter about his personal work ethic),Pete Yells At Debbie (0:33, Pete yells at Debbie after interrupting their recording session),Judy (1:50, Pete and Fred discuss their meeting with the secretary but wind up getting fired),Lawson (1:12, Pete and Fred try to strike a deal with their producer),Pet Perv (0:52, Whitaker explains his back tattoo to Pete during the board meeting), and Interviews (4:33, excised footage from the montage where Pete and Fred interview people for the animal handler position). These scenes are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen with time code at the bottom.
Animated menus and chapter selection are also included, as are promos for a few other unrelated Paramount properties. The trailer for the feature, however, is missing in action.
Final Thoughts:
While Strange Wilderness looks alright and sounds quite good, the movie really isn't that hot. There are a couple of funny moments but there are few and far between. Parts of the picture are crass enough to elicit a chuckle or two but really, this is pretty dire material. Skip it.
Ian lives in NYC with his girlfriend where he writes for DVD Talk and for DVD Maniacs. He spends a lot of time wandering around exploring and generally wondering what to do with himself. |
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