Now that gifted comic
actors Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, and Kevin Heffernan are acquainted
after making Strange Wilderness, it's time they made a real movie together. Sloppy,
choppy, and indifferently assembled, Strange Wilderness is slapdash even by the
relaxed standards of its executive producer, Adam Sandler. But thanks to the
unbridled verve of the cast—which also includes ringers like Joe Don
Baker, Robert Patrick, and 91-year-old Ernest Borgnine, who seems a little too
comfortable making bong jokes—it's also just funny enough to make viewers
wish it were a whole lot better. Written and directed by Saturday Night Live vets Fred
Wolf and Peter Gaulke, Strange Wilderness has three bad comic ideas for every good
joke, and it botches many of those, too, thanks to slack comic timing and a
nonexistent grasp of storytelling basics. But just when the flop-sweat stench
is about to become unbearable, Strange Wilderness stumbles upon an
uproarious, laugh-out moment, and suddenly it's tolerable again for another few
minutes.
Playing the Sandler-esque
man-child who learns to accept adult responsibility in order to meet a preposterous
challenge, Zahn must save the wildlife television show he has run into the
ground after taking it over two years prior from his late father. After network
head Jeff Garlin gives him just two weeks to rescue the program from
cancellation, Zahn comes across a map that will lead him to Bigfoot. Convinced
he's found the ratings-grabber he needs to stay on the air, he assembles a
ragtag team of stoners and losers played by Hill, Covert, Heffernan, Justin
Long (generally at his funniest when he acts baked) and hilariously wacko
scene-stealer Peter Dante to head off into the wild and carry out a scheme so
crazy it just might work.
With the possible
exception of monkeys, there's no funnier creature on the planet than Sasquatch.
But a potentially good gag is wasted by a clumsily executed payoff that's
neither humorous nor remotely logical. Such is the case with Wolf's direction
throughout Strange Wilderness, which squanders not just the impressive cast, but
his and Gaulke's script. Only when Wolf stays out of the way of outsized
personalities like Zahn and Hill does Strange Wilderness threaten to become the
goofy little laugh-fest a more sure-footed director could have made