AC/AL 2008 87m ENGLISH N/V CAST: Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Justin Long, Kevin Heffernan, Ashley Scott, Peter Dante, Harry Hamlin, Ernest Borgnine, Joe Don Baker, Blake Clark, Jeff Garlin & Robert Patrick CREDITS: Director: Fred Wolf; Screenwriters: F. Wolf/Peter Gaulke; Producer: P. Gaulke; Dir. of Photography: David Hennings; Production Designer: Perry Andelin Blake; Editor: Tom Costain; Costume Designer: Maya Lieberman; Music: Waddy Wachtel THE SYNOPSIS Peter Gaulke (Zahn) is the affable, but clueless host of a TV nature show called Strange Wilderness. In its heydey, the show had a successful following, thanks to its genial host: his late father. Now taking the reins, Peter can’t help the sinking ratings by producing cheesy shows with inane scripting and goofy voice-overs. His well-meaning but motley crew is of no help either. There’s business partner/sound-man Fred Wolf (Covert), veteran cameraman Milas (Borgnine), his stoner nephew Junior (Long), RV driver Danny (Dante) and obnoxious production assistant Cooker (Hill). Worse yet, local TV station boss Ed Lawson (Garlin) is ready to shut them down and give the timeslot over to the wealthier, better-equipped naturalist Sky Pierson (Hamlin)--an opportunistic and weasley jerk. Peter decides to rally the troops together to save the show when opportunity knocks. Bill Calhoun (Baker), an old buddy of his dad’s, shows up one day offering to sell Peter a map of the Ecuador--where Bigfoot purportedly lives. Pierson and his crew also have a copy of the map and have already set out to South America. The SW crew sets out too, after bringing in smart & sexy travel guide Cheryl (Scott) and alcoholic car mechanic-turned-animal handler Bill Whitaker (Heffernan). The trip to Ecuador is ripe with insanity, danger and loss of dignity. The gang runs afoul of man-eating sharks, L.A. gangbangers, a duplicitous jungle guide (Patrick), hungry piranhas and hostile natives. All of those things pale in comparison, because their total ineptitude is even worse! THE CRITIQUE Huh? That was the simple yet constant thought running through my mind during the entire screening of this “movie.” Produced by Adam Sandler and his buddies under their Happy Madison Productions banner, I was not expecting A Room With A View (HMP has produced such goofy flicks as the Deuce Bigalow movies, Joe Dirt & Click). Those were colorful masterpieces compared to STRANGE WILDERNESS. To be fair, I did laugh a few times (though it was more like guffawing than laughing). The cast is certainly game, with the always likable Steve Zahn leading the show. Also, I was glad to see wonderful character actors Ernest Borgnine and Joe Don Baker pop up too--though their screen time was way too limited. Sadly, not even usually hilarious comedic actors like Jonah Hill (Superbad) and Kevin Heffernan (on loan from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe) can spice things up. Luckily, we get to admire the lovely and funny Ashley Scott as compensation. The dashing Harry Hamlin shows up too, as the chic heavy. You elder readers out there will remember him as the suave lead on TV’s very popular L.A. Law and the Greek hero Perseus in 1981’s Clash Of The Titans. His role is marginalized here that I am not sure why he signed on. Definitely a victim of what I like to call “the cutting room floor syndrome.” Additionally, the movie’s flat direction and lame screenplay are courtesy of former SNL writers Fred Wolf (who directed & co-wrote; also scripted Black Sheep & Joe Dirt) and Peter Gaulke (co-writer; also scripted Black Knight & Ice Age: The Meltdown). Just to show you how pedestrian the whole affair is, these guys named Zahn & Covert’s characters after themselves. Get the gag? Whatever. These guys should stick to writing better material and leave filmmaking to the real professionals. No offense! Thanks to some decent widescreen-lensing by veteran film & TV cinematographer David Hennings (Ice Princess/You Got Served/Blue Crush), STRANGE WILDERNESS at least looks like a real movie. They were able to spend a couple of extra bucks on anamorphic lenses (the movie was shot in the wide PANAVISION format)--yet the producers couldn’t splurge on a better screenplay. Go figure! Other tech credits (editing, score, costumes, etc.) are marginal at best. Slightly better off are the retro-style production values & mise-en-scène--courtesy of Sandler regular, production designer Perry Andelin Blake (The Wedding Singer/Joe Dirt /Click). The set designs look as rundown and unshowered as the cast. Lastly, while it takes place in Los Angeles and Ecuador, the entire movie was shot in and around Los Angeles. One glaring question emerges: if most Bigfoot legends and sightings occur in the Pacific Northwest, whey are the characters heading for Ecuador? These filmmakers need to get their facts straight about a legend! THE BOTTOM LINE STRANGE WILDERNESS is an vaguely-amusing mess. While I laughed a few times more than the movie probably deserved, I cannot (in good faith) call this one a good movie. Nice retro-style production values, decent lensing and a smattering of wonderful elder character actors make this one almost watchable...if it weren’t a strange, silly mess. Was this a tax write-off for Sandler & Co.? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_producerclick.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_actorsuperbad.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_room_floorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_directorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenplayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Livehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmakinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_formathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_lenshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panavisionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_formatshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_scorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costume_designhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_sc%C3%A8nehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_designerclick.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filming_locationshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18shapeimage_2_link_19shapeimage_2_link_20shapeimage_2_link_21shapeimage_2_link_22shapeimage_2_link_23shapeimage_2_link_24shapeimage_2_link_25