I feel kind of bad as I type this review, because it was less than a week ago I was fairly negative about Adam Sandler’s latest film, Bedtime Stories. Now, I have even worse things to say about a movie put out by his production company, Happy Madison Productions. This won’t come as a surprise to many, as Happy Madison has been responsible for some pretty forgettable flicks over the past few years–Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, The Hot Chick and Little Nicky among others. I guess at least Rob Schneider can be grateful for all the work Adam Sandler and friends have sent his way. I guess Rob wasn’t available, because he’s nowhere to be found in Strange Wilderness.
Strange Wilderness should be put in the category of “stoner comedy” in the sense that the main characters are potheads and you likely have to be high to really enjoy the films insanely juvenile humor. Steve Zahn as Peter Gaulke tells the story in flashback. He is the son of a beloved TV TV nature-show host who has inherited the show, Strange Wilderness after his father’s death. Because he’s a total idiot and has no idea what he’s doing. Peter has managed to run the show into the ground. With the help of a band of similarly incompetent buddies, he has turned the show in to a complete mess with narrative gems like: “Monkeys make up over 80 percent of the world’s monkey population.”
As a result of all this, ratings have plummeted and the show has been moved to three in the morning. Under the threat of cancellation by the TV station manager (Jeff Garlin), Peter finds a way to make history: He decides to find the real Bigfoot in Ecuador. Peter figures it will be pretty easy, since one of his dad’s old friends, Bill Calhoun (Joe Don Baker), has taken a picture of a Bigfoot and has a map to the location of the creature’s den in Ecuador. The only problem is, a competing nature-show host (Harry Hamlin) is already hot on the trail.
Though Strange Wilderness does have a screenplay by Peter Gaulke (yes, the same name as the lead character), who has written some pretty solid stuff in the past–Ice Age: The Meltdown, Say It Isn’t So—Strange Wilderness doesn’t really have a cohesive story. Instead, it’s more like a hodgepodge of scenes with numerous characters and tangents that have no purpose in the film. For example, Ernest Borgnine plays Peter’s regular cameraman, only to recuse himself from the Ecuador trip and send his nephew (Justin Long) instead. So why have the Borgnine character in the first place? Ditto Robert Patrick as a legendary backwoods tracker, appearing for a couple scenes then disappearing again. You get the feeling the filmmakers just wanted to give their friends something to do and try to pump up the film with a special guest star or two.
On the trip to Ecuador, Peter brings along sound man Fred Wolf (Allen Covert), inexperienced animal handler Whitaker (Kevin Heffernan), a guy named Cooker and Cheryl (Ashley Scott), a gorgeous travel agent, who becomes the stereotypical love interest for Peter.
In wrapping this up, let me just mention the back cover reads, “Rated R for non-stop language, drug use, crude and sexual humor.” The only thing they got wrong was the “humor.” I didn’t find Strange Wilderness even remotely humorous but I was completely sober.
Strange Wilderness comes to Blu-ray with a satisfactory but generally underwhelming 1080p transfer framed in a 2.35:1 window. Detail ranges from solid to subpar from beginning to end. Most impressive is the visible detail on the more mundane objects seen throughout the film: the pavement on the road, leaves, foliage, and tree trunks, and the siding on the Strange Wilderness RV. Elsewhere — facial detail, for example — is adequate but far from superb. Colors are generally natural. Between the outdoors locales and the varied shades of clothing worn by the characters, the image never lacks for color but they don’t always look as defined and natural as those seen in the best of transfers. Many scenes also take on a soft appearance. Flesh tones are fine and black levels are deep and dark. Strange Wilderness offers up a sufficient high definition video transfer, but hardly one that will impress regular viewers of the format.
Strange Wilderness comes to Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This is a bland, mostly front- and dialogue-driven generic soundtrack that offers only an occasional spurt of sonic excitement. The music heard throughout offers a nice presence across the front; it’s sometimes seemingly a bit low in volume compared to dialogue and sound effects but clear and precise. Bass is occasionally both heard and felt, the rumbling of the “Strange Wilderness” RV as it pulls out for the trip to Ecuador serves as a good example. A barrage of gunfire opens up the soundstage to fine effect in the final act of the film; shots fly out from every corner and explode through each speaker. It’s a short burst of excitement in an otherwise dull soundtrack that compliments the movie well enough but never elevates it to another level.
Strange Wilderness does offer up a few special features:
• Cooker’s Song (SD, 5 min) – A featurette showing the cast and crew goofing around getting ready before doing a take on the song Jonah Hill plays in the RV, then the full version of the song.
• The Turkey (SD, 6 min) – As the synopsis on the back of the package entails, the film has an “amorous turkey.” This featurette covers the scenes involving the animal with the oral fixation, and the effects work involved to make it work.
• What do we do? (SD, 6 min) – Basically, this is an outtakes featurette, only for one scene.
• Reel Comedy: Strange Wilderness (SD, 21 min) – This feature is pretty awful. 21 minutes worth of clips from the film, with a pretty poor interview set-up. There isn’t anything informative to be found here, no real insight provided, nor are there any laughs to be found.
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 22 min) – Many of these scenes are sub-par and thankful omissions.
