Street Date: May 20

Official Synopsis:
It's survival of the witless. 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.
  
Our Take:
Have trust in Happy Madison. That’s what I have come to learn time and time again. It all started with Grandma’s Boy and what looked like one of the worst movies ever. A year or two later my friends begrudgingly convinced me to sit down and watch it and I realize that the crappy looking movie was actually drop-dead funny. Next up to bat was The Benchwarmers and again it looked dumb, except this time I decided to watch it on my own accord and the next thing I know, I loved it even more than Grandma’s Boy. Now comes Strange Wilderness… and it looks pretty dumb but I no longer care because I have faith, and that faith paid off huge with this film.

Steve Zahn and crew (the crew being Sandler regulars such as Allen Covert, Peter Dante, Jonah Hill, Justin Long and Kevin Heffernan) have put together a trip worth watching. Everything starts off normal enough, with Zahn being the host of a failing nature show that needs to do something to boost its ratings or be cancelled. Before you know it, the boys are on a quest to find and film Bigfoot so they can air a segment that is sure to save the show.

The reason these movies end up working out so well is because the creators fully understand how stupid the concepts are and how stupid the films look. However, they present them to us in such a serious tone inherent to a higher level of comedy that the end product ends up being a success. These guys have mastered the stupid-but-hilarious movie.

Special features for Strange Wilderness include:

* Cooker’s Song (6 minutes) – The filming of one of Jonah Hill’s musical bits.

* The Turkey (7 minutes) – BTS footage on one of the grosser gags in the movie.

* What Do We Do? (6 minutes) – Some goofing around.

* Reel Comedy: Strange Wilderness (21 minutes).

* Deleted Scenes (22 minutes).

So come on, guys, have some faith. At the very least you should check out Strange Wilderness but really, if you haven’t, you need to go out and see the rest of the Happy Madison productions as well.

RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD: B

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer