Cauldron

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: A & E

Media Credit: www.absolutepunk.net Immature humor makes "Strange Wilderness" a failure.

"Strange Wilderness" is the latest movie produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison production company. Although Sandler does not play a role in the movie, it includes many of his films' regulars, such as Allen Covert, who starred in the 2006 movie "Grandma's Boy," alongside "Superbad" hero Jonah Hill.

In the film, Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) is the clueless son of a wildlife TV host, who inexplicably inherits the show when his father dies. With the younger Gaulke at the helm, the show's ratings plummet despite its 3 a.m. timeslot. After being informed that the show has been cancelled, Gaulke and crew plot an adventure to Ecuador to capture Bigfoot on camera, as a last-ditch effort to save the show.

"Strange Wilderness" tries to wedge itself into the slapstick comedy niche by creating a group of characters that function as a merry band of oafs.

Cooker (Jonah Hill) has no official role in the show's small crew, but he serves as infantile comic relief throughout the movie. Most notably, Cooker uses a hand buzzer on various people to bring the film back to a lighter mood.

The biggest problem facing Gaulke and his crew, whether they realize it or not, is that the show is beyond redemption. It is slapped together without a care about quality control, and its narration contains "facts" that are actually improvised nonsense. As cameraman Junior (Justin Long) films frolicking monkeys, Gaulke tells the audience, "Monkeys make up 80 percent of the world's monkey population."

"Strange Wilderness" comes across as the kind of movie a couple of friends put together over a long weekend. Many of the animals that actually come into contact with the show's crew are blatantly fake, especially the turkey that bites Gaulke. The movie ends with an outtake, in which all the characters burst into laughter. It seems as if the scene signifies the joke is on the audience for wasting its money on this movie.

While the film generates a few laughs here and there, overall it is embarrassing to watch. This movie was most likely geared toward teenage males, given that the dialogue is filled with excessive cursing. At one point, a child in a fast food restaurant poses the question: "Why do they use such bad language?"

This movie features appearances by well-known actors such as Ernest Borgnine ("The Poseidon Adventure"), as the dispenser of sage advice, and Robert Patrick ("Terminator 2") as the tough-as-nails jungle guide. However, Borgnine and Patrick are not used to their full potential. Both actors disappear from the screen as fast as they are introduced.

Fred Wolf, the writer and director, was head-writer for "Saturday Night Live" in the mid-1990s. In addition to TV, he previously wrote two hilarious movies, "Black Sheep," starring Chris Farley, and "Dirty Work," starring another former SNL cast member, Norm Macdonald. Wolf missed the mark with this movie and it is ultimately disappointing given the quality of his past efforts.

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