« Movie Review: In Bruges | Home | At the movies, 3D’s hot all over again »
‘Strange Wilderness’
By admin | February 10, 2008
I don’t get paid to do this job. I don’t even get compensated to see the movies I’m supposed to review. And I was OK with that — until I saw Strange Wilderness.
The newest offering from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions was a sloppy film that makes Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo look Oscar-worthy. After I was surprisingly tickled by 2006’s stoner-flick Grandma’s Boy, I was interested to see whether Strange Wilderness would be able to capitalize on the production company’s comedic momentum.
Starring a slew of perpetual funny guys Steve Zahn (Saving Silverman), Jonah Hill (Superbad, Knocked Up) and Justin Long (Waiting…, Accepted), I thought the movie might be at least remotely funny. I was wrong. It’s almost as though the movie is more like a sketch comedy show, and the entire cast wasn’t taking anything about it seriously.
Zahn plays second-generation TV host Peter Gaulke, who is trying to keep afloat a popular nature show he inherited from his late father. With tanking ratings, the show is canceled and Zahn, along with his cronies, must find Bigfoot in the Ecuadorian jungle to keep the show on the air.
What follows is a disjointed series of mishaps that involve genitalia jokes, a five-minute giggle-fest about the name Dick, and people getting hit in the genitals (several times). Did I mention that there is a scene with a turkey attached to a character’s crotch?
After a few scenes, it’s apparent that much of the dialogue in the film is ad-libbed, but not well. Most of the time, it’s like the entire cast is trying too hard to be funny, and it just doesn’t work. Zahn, who is usually hilarious in supporting roles, can’t keep up any momentum in this film, probably because momentum was never established in the first place, and he just doesn’t deliver any sort of comedic timing with his jokes, if you can call them that.
Throughout the movie, there are periodic stock footage shots with Zahn’s character doing a voice-over. It might have worked in more moderation, but the fact that it is used so much in between different scenes, it seemed like they ran out of tape and decided to use the stock footage to make the movie longer. They succeeded in making it longer, but unfortunately not any funnier.
I was also disappointed in Hill’s character, whose recurring gag involves a handshake buzzer and — what else — hitting someone in the groin, all while slurring his words in a terrible version of a Southern accent.
Overall, if you are hunting for a wildlife show spoof movie that will entertain you for more than 10 minutes, Strange Wilderness is a must-miss.
Grade: F
Topics: Film Reviews |