Strange Wilderness is the tale of a boy who has to fill the shoes of his father. His father was the host of Strange Wilderness, filmed on a shoestring budget, but he was always ready for what the animals offered.
Steve Zahn plays his son, Peter, and though he's trying, his effort is less than stellar. Notes for the show are written on bar napkins. The information is shoddy at best. Most of the footage is stock footage from the 70's. His show is quickly losing its ratings. And to top it off, a new show is coming in to take his place.
So they have two weeks to save the show, and his dad's old partner comes up with the solution, for $1000. He has photos, and a map, so that they can find the legendary bigfoot.
What follows is their madcap adventures in this quest, from the beginning RV trip, to their trek thru the jungle to find him.
There were some moments where this movie was laugh out loud funny. Made with basically the same crew as Grandma's Boy, they added Justin Long and Steve Zahn. So how could it not be funny?
Steve Zahn for one. He had his moments, but they were few and far between. I didn't care for him in the least.
Next was Jonah Hill, of Superbad fame. He plays the Personal Assistant to Steve Zahn. He was horrible. It was like he was doing a horrible impersonation of Adam Sandler. When he was on the screen, the laughs dried up...immediately.
Justin Long played the stoner Junior. He was average at best. He tried to channel Tommy Chong, and instead got Stephen Wright in Half Baked. He wandered his way through the whole movie, added little, but had a few funny moments.
The highpoints was the script. I like the concept. I thought alot of the jokes were funny. It was paced well. Time wise, it was a good length.
The costuming was good, cinematography wasn't bad, and in theory, the casting was top notch for a comedy.
The chemistry of the actors was bad though. I thought that Steve Zahn was trying, but the rest of the crew didn't really believe in him. There were some good performances, and it had Ernest Borgnine, who was great. Peter Dante played his usual character, and was good at it. Allen Covert was ok, nothing spectacular. Ashley Scott played the hot female, and she was good, but her role was pretty much pointless for most of the movie.
If you've rented most the movies you wanted to see, then pick it up. It's not great, it's not horrible. To me, this was more along the lines of a National Lampoon movie than a Happy Gilmore porduction, with way less boobage, but some funny moments nonetheless.
I'm gonna give this movie 6 out of 10. I can't put my finger on why it didn't do it for me, but it just didn't. I'm not saying don't watch it, but prepare to be underwhelmed.
