By Jeff Swindoll May 20, 2008, 14:01 GMT
It would probably be best for you if you just imagine a giant prosthetic turkey on Steve Zahn’s crotch and not have to rent this turkey of a film. That was the only part that got a snicker out of me and the rest of the film was deadly boring and slapdash. In a nutshell, save your money (now you really don’t have to read the review).
Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) has “inherited” his late father’s wilderness show called “Strange Wilderness.” Where dad was pretty good at interacting with the animals and reading the lines, Peter is a bumbling, moron, idiot, loser, I’ll stop there.
Since dad died the show has been buried at the 3 am timeslot (and deservedly so) and the station manager (Jeff Garlin) is threatening to pull the plug and replace it with Sky Pierson’s (Harry Hamlin) nature show.
So now our moronic heroes have to find a sensational subject for a show or their goose is cooked. In steps Bill (Joe Don Baker), a survivalist nut and friend of Peter’s dad, who has a map to show the way to the cave of Bigfoot. So Peter and his asinine crew, soundman Fred (Allen Covert), cameraman/dopehead Junior (Justin Long), travel agent Cheryl (Ashley Scott), Cooker (Jonah Hill), and newly hired animal wrangler/alcoholic Whitaker (Kevin Heffernan), set out to Ecuador (looking eerily like the woods of California) to capture Bigfoot on camera.
Ernest Borgnine plays Milas, the loyal cameraman to Peter’s dad, but he sends the pothead Junior on the big trip. .
To put it lightly, Strange Wilderness sucks. There’s narely a laugh to be found. The only time I even managed one was seeing Steve Zahn running out of the forest with a giant prosthetic turkey attached to his dick. That only happens in the middle of the film and you have to suffer through what comes before and what comes after to get to those brief moments of possible laughter. I wouldn’t recommend sitting through it.
This mess is the directorial debut of Saturday Night Live writer Fred Wolf who has also wrote some other terrible films (Without a Paddle, etc.). Ironically one of the terrible characters in the film is named Fred Wolf, but that character is not as exquisitely annoying as Cooker.
Jonah Wolf grated on my nerves everytime he stepped onto the screen. He’s doing some redneck accent (and doing it badly). I kept hoping that Bigfoot would hurry up and eat these schmucks, but alas the big guy never gets the chance.
Strange Wilderness should clean up when award time rolls around – the Razzie Awards that is. I can’t think of enough words to tell you to stay away from this stinking pile of Bigfoot dung.
Strange Wilderness is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a grating 5 minute behind-the-scenes feature about the shooting of “Cooker’s Song” and he should be shot. A 6-minute look at “The Turkey” sequence.
The 6 minute “What Do We Do?” which is about something, I really don’t care anymore. The 8 minute “Reel Comedy” episode about the film and 22 minutes of deleted scenes follow. Finally, there are some previews for other Paramount titles.
Stay away, just stay away! This is one of the most horrible films that I’ve watched lately. Do yourself a favor and don’t subject yourself to it.
Strange Wilderness is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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