May 26, 2008

You have two weeks until your television show that your father, who passed away, created is off the air due to horrible ratings. What would be the logical thing to try and do? You would want to save it by getting some sort of show that shoots the ratings off the charts. What better way to do that than to go out and find and film Bigfoot!!

The best part about it is that you actually know where he lives and have a map to get you there. There are just three big problems. One, the guy taking your job has a two day head start. Two, you have absolutely no money. And three, your crew members are a bunch of drunk, stoned, and could possibly be the dumbest people on the face of the world.

Happy Madison Productions brings you a movie about the survival of the witless. Steve Zahn, Justin Long, and Jonah Hill join the Happy Madison classic group of comedians in Strange Wilderness. You are following the story of Peter Gaulke, Steve Zahn, in his quest to follow in his fathers’ footsteps in keeping the wildlife television show Strange Wilderness going. Strange Wilderness was a popular animal documentary show that Peter has quickly turned into voice over episodes of other people’s footage.

You find out that the longer the show is on the air the later the show is put on the air and the more the ratings drop. After mere minutes you find out why this is happening. These guys know absolutely nothing about the animals they are filming. In fact since they don’t know what is going on they just wing it and turn most of the shows into porn shows with animals or anyone willing to get onto television naked to make their show not so ugly.

After hearing about their show being cancelled in two weeks, Peter and his best friend Fred (played by Allen Covert), brain storm to find out that Bigfoot has fallen into their laps and will save their show. All they have to do is meet up with their buddy Bill in the Andes with $2,000 and he will give them the map to where Bigfoot lives. His crew decides to take on the challenge even though the crew is made up of a variety of potheads and idiots played by the likes of Jonah Hill, Justin Long, and Kevin Heffernan.

All of them have one way or another in helping to turn things from bad to worse. Whether it be stealing Nitrous from a dental office, or getting into a fight with Mexicans about how loud their music is, or just thinking it was great to swim with sharks. Now it comes down to beating his competition to Bigfoot while fighting sharks, piranhas, aborigines, and the jungle. The deeper they get into the jungle the worst off they are.

Filmmaking: 8
I love how they this movie is filmed. I really felt like I was in a documentary of Peter’s documentary. I love how they seamlessly link the two together. After the first twenty minutes I really felt like I was watching an animal documentary on finding Bigfoot. This is the one area where this film continues to shine throughout the movie.

Visuals: 7
Wow you could not get any worse in this category. From the hilarious turkey scenes to Bigfoot you could not get any more low budget. There were some bright spots in the film. The jungle sets were colorful and very vibrant and the bus scenes really made you feel like these guys were dirt poor and only cared about drugs. Overall the fuzzy and low budget visuals fit the style of the actual television show Strange Wilderness.

Sound: 5
When I think of this movie sounds isn’t one of the categories that I am really interested in. Nevertheless good background music can really add to the scene. This movie really doesn’t have a lot of scenes that stand out. On top of that there really isn’t any background music that stood out in my mind after watching the movie. All I know is that this was a below average film with below average sound effects.

Value: 9
This film really takes a long time to take off. I feel asleep the first two times I started to watch it. But after you get through the first twenty to thirty minutes the film does pick up and gets pretty funny. There is no way in the world this movie is worth $20 anywhere. This is at best a rental or if you can find it somewhere for $5 or less it would be worth your time.

Overall: 5.7
This film is filled with nothing but druggy innuendos, gross out physical humor, and somewhat disturbing footage of mutilated body parts. There is a lot of improvisation, as expect with this type of class. There are some really hilarious parts and some really really wasted moments that really could have shined if done right. I had some pretty high expectations when looking at this cast but quickly was disappointed. If you don’t go into this film you will find it somewhat enjoyable but trust me you have to have little to no expectations.