The Quad

Issue date: 2/11/08 Section: Entertainment

The review for "Strange Wilderness" can be summed up into one statement: awful. There are no redeeming qualities about this movie. After leaving the theater, you will not turn to the person to the left of you and say, 'That movie has its moments.' If you do state this, you are a liar or you laugh at anything. If you are a liar, stay home and tell people you went to see it. Opening weekend, this movie did not even crack the top 10 in box office earnings, so it is a safe bet that whoever you are talking to has not seen the movie. If you laugh at anything, save your money and just make shadow puppets. Don't waste eight dollars on "Strange Wilderness".

In the movie, "Strange Wilderness" is the name of a wildlife television show. Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) took over this show from his father. Gaulke has run his father's legacy and show into the ground. The television station decides to cancel "Strange Wilderness." In an attempt to keep the show on air, Gaulke and his cronies go on the search for Bigfoot in South America. Many crazy events take place during the trip. After the trip the movie runs for another 20 minutes unnecessarily.

The most disappointing part of "Strange Wilderness" is that it has amazing potential. The movie was written by Fred Wolfe. He is not a household name, yet he was the head writer on Saturday Night Live from 1992-1996. He then wrote "Black Sheep" and "Dirty Work." Both of these are classics. Anyone watching "Strange Wilderness" would have an easier time believing that the script was written by pygmy marmosets than a legitimate comedy writer. He wrote about drugs, sex and wildlife shows, yet it never was close to entertaining. It should have been easy with the cast assembled.

"Superbad," "Grandma's Boy," "Super Troopers," "Saving Silverman" and "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" are some of the previous movies that this cast had worked on. It seems with all of the experience of acting in extremely successful comedy movies or a comedy troop (Kevin Heffernan in Broken Lizard) would make this movie funny by default.

Fred Wolfe probably thought the same thing as he wrote it and directed it. It must have been too late when he realized that the movie needed direction. It also needed more than the same three jokes told slightly different throughout the movie. It is hard to blame the cast in this movie because the talent is there. It makes one wonder how much worse "Strange Wilderness" could have been.

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