5.2 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
From Happy Madison Productions comes a comedy with bite. In order to save his wildlife TV show from being cancelled, dim-witted host Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) and his half-baked crew of misfits have one last chance to turn the ratings around. Desperate to stay on the air, Peter hatches a plan to track down the most elusive beast on Earth - Bigfoot. But when killer pygmies, frisky border guards and an amorous turkey threaten to cut their expedition short, the crew of Strange Wilderness will soon discover that nature is one bad mother.
Starring: Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Kevin Heffernan, Ashley ScottComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
No matter how many sea lions are eaten each year by sharks, it never seems like enough.
Perhaps it's time to retire the old "Outdoors Comedy" once and for all. It seems like the last one
worth anything was 1988's The Great Outdoors, which starred a pair of
"they-don't-make-'em-like-they-used-to" comedians, John Candy (Uncle Buck) and Dan
Aykroyd (Ghostbusters).
Strange Wilderness is simply painful to watch. Oddly enough, it offers plenty of laughs, but
in between those laughs is a movie so poorly-written, lackadaisically-paced, and
haphazardly-executed that it becomes an exercise in frustration, futility, and fruitlessness. Granted,
it's unfair to expect all that much out of this sort of movie, but when a film must resort to
mentioning the inclusion of an "amorous turkey" on the back of the box, one can safely assume
said movie isn't destined for a sweep at the Oscars. At least they got the "turkey" part right.
Don't I look sharp on a Sharp?
Strange Wilderness roams onto Blu-ray with a satisfactory but generally underwhelming 1080p transfer framed in a 2.35:1 window. Detail ranges from solid to subpar from beginning to end. Most impressive is the visible detail on the more mundane objects seen throughout the film: the pavement on the road, leaves, foliage, and tree trunks, and the siding on the "Strange Wilderness" RV. Elsewhere -- facial detail, for example -- is adequate but far from exemplary. Colors are generally natural in tint and the film never appears too warm or too dull. Between the outdoors locales and the varied shades of clothing worn by the characters, the image never lacks for color but they don't always look as defined and natural as those seen in the best of transfers. Many scenes also take on a soft and unfocused appearance. Flesh tones are fine, and black levels are deep and dark. Strange Wilderness offers up a sufficient high definition video transfer, but hardly one that will impress longtime fans of the format.
Strange Wilderness comes to Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This is a bland, mostly front- and dialogue-driven generic soundtrack that offers only an occasional spurt of sonic excitement. The music heard throughout offers a nice presence across the front; it's sometimes seemingly a bit low in volume compared to dialogue and sound effects, but clear and pleasing. Bass is occasionally both heard and felt, the rumbling of the "Strange Wilderness" RV as it pulls out for the trip to Ecuador serves as a good example. The track features precious few surround effects. There are several sequences that take place outdoors, such as a campfire sequence in chapter seven that is ripe for a true surround-sound experience, but it offers little in the way of immersive atmospherics. A barrage of gunfire opens up the soundstage to fine effect in the final act of the film; shots fly out from every corner and explode through each speaker. It's a short burst of excitement in an otherwise dull soundtrack that compliments the movie well enough but never elevates it to another level.
Strange Wilderness roams onto Blu-ray with a few supplements. Cooker's Song (480p, 5:48) is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of one of the film's musically-inclined scenes. The Turkey (480p, 6:47) looks at how the "amorous turkey" sequence was set-up and filmed. What Do We Do? (480p, 6:06) examines the application of Justin Long's unique makeup and the filming of the "roundtable discussion" sequence. Reel Comedy: 'Strange Wilderness' (480p, 21:16) is an extended interview piece with various members of the cast as they recount the plot and their character's traits and motivations. Finally, a series of 13 deleted scenes (480p, 22:13) conclude this supplemental package.
In the not-so-great tradition of Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling, Strange Wilderness is a critical and box-office flop. Whereas the former was a mostly innocent yet nevertheless lame-brained film, the latter is just too vulgar, both verbally and visually, the film seemingly an excuse to cram as many crude gags as possible into its 85-minute runtime. Whereas the formula might work in a movie with a superior script and a point, like the better of the Judd Apatow Comedies, Strange Wilderness is a hodgepodge of toilet and genital humor centered around a loosely-structured plot with nothing going for it save for a bit of witty banter and the presence and several good actors doing their best with the material. Paramount brings Strange Wilderness to Blu-ray with results that are satisfactory for the content of the film. Neither the video nor audio presentations rank among the best of the format has to offer, and the included supplements are few and not all that interesting. Fans of any of the actors might want to give this one a rent, but most are advised to skip it altogether.
2019
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