5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Polar-opposite brothers Randy and Kirk never saw eye-to-eye, but their rivalry is taken to a new level when Randy hijacks Kirk's son's sleepover, taking the boys on a Scout Trip to remember.
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Johnny Knoxville, Rob Riggle, Patrice O'Neal, Eddie RouseComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.41:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
If you thought Moonrise Kingdom was too twee, here's a film about scouting that goes for R-rated humor and sacrilegious sight-gags instead. Unfortunately, Nature Calls is lost in the woods without a comedic compass. The work of writer/director Todd Rohal—the crazed brain behind last year's The Catechism Cataclysm—the movie is tonally inconsistent, aggressively stupid, and about as funny as a first-aid lesson. It's a mess, to put it plainly, and watching it you get the sense that the director, actors, and crew each had different ideas about what sort of film they were making. Is it supposed to be a shaggy, Bad News Bears-style underdog story? A distinctly adult raunch-fest? A touching Wes Anderson-lite ode to fathers and sons and brothers and childhood? There are strands of all three here, but Rohal just can't tie them together in a knot that holds. Nature Calls was one of the worst theatrical releases of 2012, hands down—it currently has a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes—and I have a feeling that rather than developing some sort of cult following, it will be promptly forgotten on home video. So bad it’s good just doesn’t apply here.
Nature Calls blows, and it's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray transfer isn't so hot either. The movie was shot on the ever-popular and capable Red One camera, but the picture is almost perpetually soft, lacking truly fine detail in all but the tightest closeups. I'm not sure if this was due to an inept focus puller, cheap lenses, or whether the image has been given a slight noise reduction daubing—my money's on all three—but the picture just isn't up to the standard set by previous movies shot on the Red system. And then there's the flat lighting and dull production design, which scream "low-budget comedy." The color grading goes for a mostly realistic look, and both saturation and contrast seem decently balanced, with no ruddy skin tones or overly crushed blacks, but it's hard to be impressed by the video quality. Along with the softness, you'll also notice some slight compression artifacting at times if you pixel peep. Not that any of this matters much. The film made less than $400 theatrically—playing on two screens for one weekend—and I doubt it'll move many Blu-ray units.
The movie features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that gets the job done capably, with Boy Scout-like humility. That is, there's nothing that really stands out here, audio-wise, but there are no real slip-ups either. Most of the mix is staked down in the front channels, but ambience and occasional effects do fly loose in the surround speakers, from wind and bird calls and insect clamor to fireworks exploding raucously in all directions. Backing up the onscreen action is some chipper original music by Ryan Miller (Safety Not Guaranteed) and Joseph Stevens (Eastbound & Down), which has suitable clarity and presence. Most importantly—or least, perhaps, in this case—the inane dialogue is always cleanly recorded, balanced at the top of the mix, and easily understood. For that that might need or want them, the disc also includes English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
No contest. Nature Calls is the worst movie I've seen so far this year. It's aggressively dumb—to the extent of being insulting to its audience— and it just isn't funny. At all. I can remember laughing once, but it was that sort of sarcastic, indignant laugh you do sometimes when you can't believe what you're seeing. Don't let the semi-decent cast fool you. Patton Oswalt and Patrice O'Neal—who died shortly after production wrapped—are entirely wasted here, and don't get me started on Johnny Knoxville and Rob Riggle. You should earn some sort of merit badge for being able to sit through this thing. I wouldn't even advise a cautious rental. Just skip it.
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