User Reviews

"Strange Wilderness" has a very simplistic script, searching for "bigfoot" to save an "amazing animals" type television show from being canceled. There are some seriously funny bits strung together by a flimsy premise, but who cares? It's funny, and the ridiculous plot simply adds to the fun. If you enjoy movies like "Idiocracy" then "Strange Wilderness" is for you. What's not to like about a film that spoofs in a very clever way, every "Animal Kingdom" episode you can think of? If you go in expecting stupidity, simplemindedness, and some really funny parts, you will not be disappointed...... Recommended. - MERK

There is only one plot line I can extract from my experience watching Strange Wilderness. It is mildly about a wilderness animal TV show hosted by a guy named Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn). He and his demented crew (Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Ashley Scott, Justin Long e.t.c.) find out that the ratings for their 3 A.M. show have dropped drastically. They have two weeks before their show gets the boot, and they have to find a way to keep it on the air. Peter's friend Milas (Ernest Borgnine...Making a quick cha-ching) suggests he knows where Bigfoot lives within the Andes wild, so the team decides to track the mysterious creature as a last hope to save the show. While on the road they run into one ludicrous obstacle after another, but keep going anyway. That really just about wraps it up in the "plot" department.

Strange Wilderness is an awful film in reality. The plot is thinner than a microscopic germ, the acting is either drug-induced or just absolutely atrocious with no real effort (I'm leaning towards drug-induced). The film itself is tastelessly shot in any possible way. They were in the wilderness for 90% of the film, they could have thrown in at least a few nice artsy shots of trees or something, but I guess that was a no-no. And don't even get me started on the continuity because there is virtually no continuity to critique. What other negative things can I say about Strange Wilderness. Oh that's right, how in the world could I forget this big detail, the filmmakers sure did. Strange Wilderness does not seem to have a script. Instead the actors seem to sit around after being told a basic outline of what to talk about. Then they just ad-lib away until the scene is over, and most of that screen time they don't follow that basic outline in any way imaginable. If there was any sort of script to this movie, I'm guessing Jack Daniels or Captain Morgan wrote it. Who knows maybe somebody dropped a lit joint on the screenplay and it went up in flames, and everyone around was too high to do a rewrite.

But Strange Wilderness was funny at times, there I said it. Despite all the horrendous effort that went into making this flimsy far-below-low-brow comedy, it was the actors having "high" and mighty fun that made the film watchable. Justin Long for instance is at his worst here as a one dimensional stoner, but he still manages to give us a few chuckles just because of how random and stupid he is acting on screen. There is one funny scene in which he has tattooed eyes on his eyelids, and the team wakes him up from sleeping and he scares all of them. Although the tattoos were magically gone in the next scene, I guess Justin Long must have found them in a box of cracker jacks and suggested it as a gag. Steve Zahn is a very talented actor with movies like Joy Ride, Rescue Dawn, and even You've Got Mail. But in Strange Wilderness he too is at his seemingly deliberate worst. As the host of a wilderness TV show his character Peter is bad, as is the show where you can actually hear Steve Zahn stutter and pause as he thinks of what to say next. The half-assed ad-libbing is hilarious. I've never seen a movie with as little effort as Strange Wilderness, and because everyone involved doesn't try to hide that fact we can actually laugh at the film.

Steve Zahn, Justin Long, Jonah Hill, and even Ernest Borgnine were most likely all stoned in the making of this movie. This movie was probably shot for their own amusement and then somehow made its way into movie theaters. I don't know how they got that accomplished, but I guess the Happy Madison crew have their ways. The movie is very bad but I would prefer it any day of the week before I ever watched dreck like Epic Movie or Meet the Spartans again. At least this movie had a few fine actors having a stoned good time. In the end I give Strange Wilderness a 1.5 out of 4 because it is an awful film. But for a one time viewing it was a little amusing in a half-assed way.

This movie extremely disappointed me! I remember watching the trailer months prior to its release, so I was pretty excited for it. I really enjoy most of the Happy Madison films, but this one was a complete bummer! I love Jonah Hill and Steve Zahn is just as good. Not to mention the cast of characters that usually appear in these films, specifically Allen Covert of Grandma's Boy. I really loved that movie, so I then put faith that this one would be somewhat comparable, but quite the contrary. I mean there was some funny and sometimes hilarious parts, but it was just a stretch. They tried way too hard for laughs and some of the time they did succeed, but fell short quite numerously! Jonah Hill's character got few lines, but when he did, they were fairly funny. I did enjoy Justin Long as he is coming into his own as an actor. Kevin Heffernan didn't get nearly enough funny lines or the proper camera time he deserved, I mean he's Farva for the love of god, the man is funny. With all this being said, wait for the DVD. Poor plot, great actors, but wrongly used their talents! Severely disappointed in this film.....I even went opening night I was so excited.....stupid film.....not even a stoner flick at best and trust me I love stoner flicks!

Steve Zahn is gold in comedy and horror! Lots of silly nonsense in this story but hey what's wrong with that occasionally? Ridiculous amount of crude stuff and immature behavior; love it hate, it that's all there is to it.

I loved Superbad and Accepted. Steven Zahn is normally hilarious. Yet, I can not believe I wasted almost 2 hours of my life on this movie! The only funny parts were the voice overs, much of which we had already seen on the trailers. I was tempted to get up and leave during the middle, OK, to be honest - the first 20 minutes, of this movie. I braved my way through the movie instead. If someone offered me $100 dollars to sit through this movie again, I would have to turn them down. Seriously, this was one of the worst movies I've ever sat through and I honestly think I have become more stupid by watching it. Please, save your money and your brain cells!

I have never written a review on IMDb before, although I see many movies. However, after seeing this movie I was compelled to write a review in the hope that someone might see it before seeing this movie. The main review on the page seems to say that this movie is alright, or even funny. I don't exaggerate in the slightest when I say that it was the worst movie I have ever seen. As a cinema student for four years, I love and see thousands of movies, yet I'm not a snob. I liked Grandma's Boy a lot, even Dude Where's my Car had its Moments. In fact, as a 19 year old male I almost perfectly fit the target audience for this movie. But this movie, unlike others in its genre, was so awful I can't even begin to construct a thorough complaint. A day after seeing it I am still in awe of how bad it was. I was disappointed that Jonah Hill wasn't funnier, because SuperBad was amazing, but it wasn't his fault. I'm not sure that there were any writers for this movie, my best guess is that the actors got together and smoked a lot of pot before each set, and then improvised their lines (poorly) around a general plot line. The actors seem desperate for laughs, and sometimes the jokes were just gruesome. Unless you have smoked at least a bowl of marijuana, do yourself a favor and don't see this movie. Promote quality art, and don't send your money towards the makers of this film.

I rented this movie the other night, because I thoroughly enjoyed Grandma's Boy and saw the trailer for this a few months back and thought it would be just as hilarious. I popped this in, and forty minutes later I had to turn it off because of how horribly un-funny and poorly made it is. The only part I laughed at was when Justin Long had the tattoos on his eyelids, and even that was in the trailer, so I had already seen it. The only word to describe the plot is ridiculous, and I don't mean that in the Superbad or Grandma's Boy sense of the word ridiculous. It may be the worst plot I've ever seen, read of, or heard, hands down. The movie could have been saved by some decent comedic performances from generally solid comedic actors (Jonah Hill, Steve Zahn, etc.), but every single one of them did such a poor job on this. I know it's silly for me to be reviewing this film, it's obviously just a fun little stoner film that these guys just put out there to make a few bucks, but I just want to make sure that no one else ever sees this movie again. Seriously, it's that bad. And this is coming from a guy who normally enjoys stupid comedies. I mean, I loved Hot Rod, and that's one of the stupidest plots that's ever been in a movie, but it was still hilarious. I'm very disappointed with everybody involved in the making of this movie, and will be wary about all of their works in the future. This is crap.

I have read a lot of negative reviews about this movie. I'd have to say that they are 100% correct. I have also read some reviews by people who absolutely loved it. They are also 100% correct. I tend to be more toward the second group, but I can definitely see both sides.

The plot makes no sense. The dialogue is at times very bad. However (a very big however), I think that this movie knows its audience and delivers to them a light-hearted "stoner" movie with some very funny moments (the shark voice-overs, for example). This is a Happy Madison movie. Yes, times have changed from Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore (two of the originals, no doubt). However, I think that many people go into these types of movies expecting something more "mainstream," such as Wedding Crashers or 40-Year-Old Virgin. The sure absurdity of the movie was enough for me. Much of the dialogue, albeit very goofy, has a certain improv feel to it, letting the actors play with the scenes.

To end this long "review," think of movies like Beerfest, Super Troopers, Grandma's Boy for a quick comparison. Does this movie win any awards? Absolutely not. Is it probably better on DVD? Perhaps. However, if these laugh-aloud "stoner" movies are your thing, then I think you'll enjoy this movie.

I saw this movie last Friday night, and 6 nights later I still feel cheated out of the $15 my husband and I spent to see this. It was a shame that this film was as horrible as it was, considering the actors that were in it. Together, they have the potential chemistry to create an extremely funny film, but here it fell short To me it seemed that the entire movie was a compilation of outtakes, and if it wasn't that, then there was no script and they made up the lines as they went along. It was tasteless, unfunny and a waste of time. I hope that by reading this, I can save people money. The best part of the film was seeing the preview for Will Ferrel's new movie "Semi-Pro".

If you liked Talladega Nights, you will definitely like this one. Very funny stoner movie.

The ending isn't really my taste, a bit on the repulsive side, but overall this movie is hysterically funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The comedic timing is perfect, really nicely done production quality overall, and the musical score is fantastic. Nicely paced, didn't really have any draggy parts. The movie is a really good "dood" comedy. I have been recommending it to my friends already. I might not fit the demographic the film is aimed at, but I loved the movie. I love funny stuff and this film split my gut several times. It's a good time.

The movie starts out with outtakes of genuine wildlife show legend, Bill Burrid, getting picked on by an ostrich, and knocked down by goats. I loved watching his show when I was a kid, so right off the bat, I was in love with the movie, curious about the story, and wanted to see where it was going to go.

The humor and dialogue push the envelope of stupidity, but actually has an intelligent edge. That's why it reminds me of Talladega Nights in terms of comedic dialogue style. The movie is silly, but not stupid. This film puts the "Fun" back in "Funny".

The film crew is just a bunch of misfits that get along great. They go in search of Bigfoot, in an attempt to keep it on the air. Murphy's Law is in full swing, in a very funny way throughout the film.

Target market is teen & 20-something males.

This was, quite possibly, the worst movie I have ever seen. Actually, I didn't see the end of it because I left the theater, which is something I never do. Horrible acting, terrible plot, awful jokes. There is hardly anything funny about this movie. I found myself laughing at maybe 2 lines and that was it.

I would say wait until it comes out on DVD to see it, but that would be a waste of money and time.

The thing is, I usually enjoy slapstick comedy movies similar to this. Unfortunately, this was far worse than anything I have ever seen.

I left the movie and went and watched something else because I couldn't stand to be in there any longer.

Very uplifting, and randomly hilarious film. It's definitely not an A+ as far as the plot goes, (not uncommon in the comedy genre), however, the funny one liners, outstanding acting from Justin long (the guy who stared in accepted) who in this movie plays a brain dead stoner PERFECTLY, and the random humor, which requires an above average sense of humor, but which kept me laughing out loud the entire movie, are more than enough to classify this film as a "I'm really glad I watched that movie" ...movie. :D . Heres a list of comedies I enjoyed. perhaps we have similar taste. Anchor man, Napolean Dynamite (kind-of), Billy Madison, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bio Dome, Knocked Up. etc.

"Strange Wilderness" is a good-natured, frequently hilarious takeoff on all those nature documentaries that play on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, and whose pedigree stretches all the way back to the granddaddy of them all, "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom." Peter and Fred are the producers of a wildlife series entitled "Strange Wilderness" that has been foundering in the ratings ever since Peter's father, a Steve Irwin-type naturist and the original host of the show, passed away, leaving his less-than-stellar son to carry on his legacy. The sheer scientific illiteracy of much of the commentary that Peter provides for his footage probably hasn't helped matters much in this regard. Now faced with the prospect of series cancellation, Peter and his crew of incompetent dweebs head off to the wilds of South America to file an exclusive report on the famed Bigfoot who has recently been spotted there.

Though adolescent in the extreme, "Strange Wilderness" turns out to be a zany, endearingly random and unflaggingly energetic little comedy whose likable cast is obviously dialed into what the movie makers are trying to do here. Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Covert, Ernest Borgnine, Jeff Garlin, Kevin Heffernan, Justin Long and Harry Hamlin seem to be having the time of their lives here and their enjoyment rubs off on us as well.

Is it dumb? Of course it is. Is it lowbrow, inane and hopelessly juvenile? You betcha'. But unlike so many other films that fall into those categories, "Strange Wilderness" has a shrewd mind for parody and a liveliness of spirit that actually make the movie funny. Credit scenarist Peter Gaulke and co-author/director Fred Wolf (who first developed this concept as sketches on "Saturday Night Live") for some excellent joke-writing and pacing and for their willingness to pull out all the stops in their effort to get the laugh. In fact, the crew's ill-fated encounter with Bigfoot is alone worth the price of admission.

There is no need to recap any portions of the plot or analyze the storyline in any way. Bottom line, this movie is quite possibly the most unfunny "comedy" I have ever seen. Terrible "acting," completely inept "directing," and I can't think of a single joke or bit that worked. So bad, one can only sit and wonder how this possibly was given financial backing and attracted recognizable talent such as Steve Zahn and Jonah Hill.

This film is completely tasteless and to label it sophomoric or juvenile would be a slap in the face to teenagers the world over. I would love for the few people who come away liking this to volunteer for a sociological and psychological study, because I want to know how their minds work.

Strange Wilderness is a good, if not particularly memorable, stoner comedy revolving around a young slacker (Steve Zahn) who inherits a wildlife television show from his father. Unfortunately, he and his stoner buddies manage to get the show canceled, and their only hope is to get footage of Bigfoot down in Ecuador.

Sound stupid? Well, it is, but it still manages to get a lot of laughs, even if they are not particularly original. Some of the highlights, such as a dentally challenged shark, are well known from YouTube, but there are still plenty of laughs to be had, including a scene involving a decidedly ferocious turkey. The whole thing is held together by Steve Zahn, whose charisma makes even many of the lamer jokes funny.

The film definitely has flaws. Many of the jokes, particularly in the first half, fall flat, and Jonah Hill does little with his character other than act stoned. Furthermore, many of the jokes are easy to predict in advance. Still, it's a great comedy for a boring afternoon.

Not funny. The only bright spots are Ashley Scott, Joe Don Baker, Blake Clark and Ernest Borgnine. It's disappointing seeing the talented Steve Zahn stuck in this film. The biggest problem is the script--it just isn't very funny. I heard very little laughing in the theater while I was watching this. The scrotum gag just seemed tired. The turkey bit was kind of funny, but at the same time really stupid. There is a Canadian film from around 1983 called "Screwballs" that had a much funnier scene with a bowling ball during a game of strip bowling. Come to think of it, "Screwballs" is a much funnier film than "Strange Wilderness" is from start to finish.

OK I am a huge fan of most of this groups work. That is the Apatow influenced cast members, but this movie literally hurt my head. There is the weakest plot ever, stoner jokes that are bland and wasted due to timing, and shameless comments about many different ethic groups. I liked grandma's boy, superbad was awesome, etc... but damn this was a waste of two hours of my life. Its been a long time since I could find nothing good to say about movie, I found good in 27 dresses from seeing the week before, but this was just a pathetic attempt to get the stoner youth of America to come out to the movies. And I can say that as one of these stoners, I should have stayed home and watched reruns on TV.

Don't WASTE YOUR TIME OR YOUR MONEY!

Have you ever watched a movie and become so entirely disgusted with it that you literally begin to resent the actors who are featured therein? Well, I can't say it's happened to me a lot - if ever! - but I ejected Strange Wilderness from my DVD player feeling actual anger toward Steve Zahn, Justin Long, Ashley Scott, and the incredibly overrated Jonah Hill for having participated in what is simply one of the most mind-numbingly awful films I have seen in many, many years.

How this film has even managed to rate in the 5/10 range on IMDb is mind-blowing; its script is on the level of what you might expect from first-year students working on a campus television station - inane attempts at humor that are likely only amusing to the cast and crew, incoherent editing, a "climax" relating to the hunt for Bigfoot that is nothing short of appalling, and an epilogue/closing sequence that is on a par with the worst sketch from SNL - scratch that, make it MadTV - that you have ever seen. The difference with first-year students is that you can excuse the fact their production is amateur hour; writer/director Fred Wolf, who has ostensibly contributed some valuable ideas to SNL over the years and is obviously well-connected to the Happy Madison/Sandler crew, is an experienced guy who apparently has abhorrent judgment about what's funny when left to his own devices.

Avoid this at all costs - even if you enjoyed "dumb comedies" as I did like Happy Gilmore, Road Trip, Step Brothers, Jackass, Tommy Boy, Deuce Bigelow, etc., believe me, this movie will leave you absolutely nauseated at how rank it is.

One of the reasons why I decided to watch this, is because I needed a comedy to laugh at, if it's not possible to laugh together with it. The DVD is already available at the shops, but I don't think I'm ready to fork out a Code 1 DVD price for what's essentially a short comedic film which is based from a Saturday Night Life comedy skit. Written by the same creative team of Peter Gaulke and Fred Wolf with the latter taking on directorial duties as well, Strange Wilderness delivered some genuine laughs, but only if you're tolerant of being insensitive to the kind of subject the film makes fun of.

Strange Wilderness is a long running wildlife programme which is now succeeded by Peter (Steve Zahn), the host of the show, whose father had made the programme into one of the best loved prime time shows. Under Peter's leadership, ratings have plummeted, and needless to say even their 3am timeslot is in danger of being canceled. In a last minute desperation for survival, he and his crew have to look for a new way to ensure their programme continues, and dropped at their laps is the opportunity to follow up on a solid lead to the whereabouts of Bigfoot.

Eseentially this movie is one big road trip that tells of the crew's journey to documentary history, with the likes of soundman and co-collaborator Fred (Allen Covert), Cooker (Jonah Hill), the only female in the team Cheryl (Ashley Scott), and cameraman Junior (Justin Long), amongst others. And throughout the movie, we see each and everyone of them getting into enough funny scenarios that made this film look like many pieces of skits being glued together, with laughs coming courtesy of sexual innuendos (you just got to hand it to the turkey), sight gags, slapstick and just plain buffoony. In fact, I even suspect that everyone in the cast were on a high as they shot this, as dialogues were laced quite incoherently with plenty of ad-libbing, especially Justin Long, though of course if he's really acting, then kudos to him for being stoned all the time.

While giving no respect to wildlife, the funniest moments were reserved for their voice overs of Nature, and it's really quite incredible should anything like it be actually aired for television. They are intentionally full of factual errors, lapse into unnecessary judgmental and slanted viewpoints, but always just plain ridiculously funny. Perhaps I was in crap mode, but the humor here doesn't apologize for any offence made, since after all, the subject matter can't fight back anyway. I know I'm shallow if I say I really couldn't get enough of the film poking fun at the physical features/defects repeatedly. There is no plot in the movie, besides everyone being perpetually broke as they try and scrimp or come out with more hare-brained ideas to fund their movie and fuel the laughs.

So the bottomline is, don't expect any genius from Strange Wilderness, but if you're in for some low-brow humor, then this movie might just be the perfect laughing medicine for anyone wanting to chase the blues away, without any medicinal assistance.

Here is the setting: It's a dark and rainy night in downtown San Francisco, the wind howling, the rain begging for mercy while flying sideways, a usual winter setting. I figure, "Hey, you know AVPR looked like it had potential."

I exit the darkened theater, pondering what the two directors will do for work following this poor excuse for an adolescent's action movie orgasm. I made a pact that day with my friend, Mike, to never again fall prey to this trite waste of celluloid.

February soon approached, and I could barely contain myself for this awesome comedy with a pretty decent cast.

I'll skip to the end. This movie sucked. Hard. I'm talking unwelcome testicles of an elderly man. Even being baked out of my mind, I still couldn't help but reassure myself that the funny parts were going to start soon, that maybe some actor would be funny. I can count on one hand the segments that I laughed at. Even the character's weren't funny. Kevin Heffernen, who created the immaculate character of Rod Farva in Super Troopers, get's an F for this movie. But I don't blame him, I blame the stoned-junior-high-kid quality of the script. I kid you not, half the cast served ZERO purpose in this movie. I have never wanted to have a refund for a movie. EVER. Congratulations Strange Wilderness, you have become the new Club Dread.

This is the absolute worst - greatest movie I have ever seen. If you have nothing to do or just want to laugh at the most inappropriate and random things ever, rent this film. This movie makes no sense, has no script, completely defies all forms of logic and made my stomach hurt from laughter. If real animal T.V. shows were like the show in this movie, I would only watch the Discovery Channel. "Attacks by salmon on bears are much more rare" , "No matter how many sea lions are killed each year by sharks, it never seems like enough" and "Does your name ever get hard in the morning?" might be three of the funniest things I have ever heard. The actors basically just tried to see who could make the other actors and crew laugh more during filming. There was no script, just say whatever you want. It must be nice to be Adam Sandler's buddy. You can goof around, make crappy movies for your friends to laugh at and still get paid. What a life! This movie should get an Academy Award for being so horrible it becomes awesome. 10 out of 10!!!!!

I picked up a copy of this film over the weekend. All I could recall about it's original theatrical release was the trailer. It depicts looped underwater footage of a swimming shark with protruding teeth, while a disembodied voice delivers a cartoonish, "goofy" laugh. This alone was a red flag. Little did I know many months later, I would be convulsively laughing within the first 10 minutes of this movie in the comfort of my living room. I've seen several bad reviews of this film and many reviewers made valid points. The production values, script and dialogue are all ill conceived. At times it seems like a hodgepodge of outtakes and improvisation but this doesn't necessarily make it a bad movie. It delivers on the lowest level of the low brow humor. The characters are beyond moronic. Their behavior and verbal interactions are subsophomoric. If this is your type of humor by all means pick up this movie. It never pretends to be what it isn't. No pretense, no lessons to be learned, just a movie about a group of idiots on an quest to make the audience laugh. Most of the time they succeed! Anyone who saw the original theatrical trailer should've known what to expect.

Overall, I usually like the types of movies put out by the folks at "Happy/Madison". I realize they are usually a little "over the top", Childish and the like. Also, I'm the kind of guy who looks at a movies cast and says "With celebs like that involved - this movie will probably be pretty good".

What was I thinking????? I was duped!!!

I love Steve Zahn in everything else he's ever done. Jonah Hill is considered a very funny "up & Comer" I loved Justin Long as "The Mac Kid", Jeepers Creepers and the Last Die Hard Movie. Robert Patrick is know for parts in big movies like "Terminator2" and "Walk the line".

Where did I go wrong??? This Movie (in my opinion) was the biggest waste of film I have ever seen.

Somebody, somewhere owes me an apology, 2 hours of my life back and at least $8.50 !!!!!

Come on Guys!!!!