2008 Woodie Awards
'Strange Wilderness' is strangely written
by Sean Flanders
Issue date: 2/7/08
Section: Movies
For a movie filled with random, episodic adventures and more than a couple unnecessary shots of people's genitals, "Strange Wilderness" feels like it lost quite a bit in the editing room.
The filmmakers fit an awful lot into the story of the world's worst wildlife show trying to capture footage of Bigfoot, but it often seems as though there were originally supposed to be more plotlines that were cut mostly to save time.
Characters with great comedic potential, such as a rival wildlife host and a very intense jungle guide, are introduced and then quickly written out of the story with little resolution. Other characters are there through the whole thing, but do little besides provide a few jokes and serve as the token woman/new guy on the crew. This bogs "Strange Wilderness" down with a good bit of exposition and character introduction that never delivers any payoff.
What the film does better are quick gags that initially make the audience laugh at how absurd they are, and then keeps 'em chuckling with the characters' reactions to the latest bizarre situation. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of these to make the movie consistently entertaining. Three or four scenes that are gut-bustingly funny don't make up for 10 or 12 scenes barely worth a smirk.
Maybe the DVD version will have enough deleted scenes to fix this problem, but as it stands, "Strange Wilderness" needs more coats of polish on its plot and a few more truly funny scenes to make it worthwhile.
THE GRADE: C
So much comedic potential, so little payoff.
Sean Flanders is a Reporter staff writer
The filmmakers fit an awful lot into the story of the world's worst wildlife show trying to capture footage of Bigfoot, but it often seems as though there were originally supposed to be more plotlines that were cut mostly to save time.
Characters with great comedic potential, such as a rival wildlife host and a very intense jungle guide, are introduced and then quickly written out of the story with little resolution. Other characters are there through the whole thing, but do little besides provide a few jokes and serve as the token woman/new guy on the crew. This bogs "Strange Wilderness" down with a good bit of exposition and character introduction that never delivers any payoff.
What the film does better are quick gags that initially make the audience laugh at how absurd they are, and then keeps 'em chuckling with the characters' reactions to the latest bizarre situation. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of these to make the movie consistently entertaining. Three or four scenes that are gut-bustingly funny don't make up for 10 or 12 scenes barely worth a smirk.
Maybe the DVD version will have enough deleted scenes to fix this problem, but as it stands, "Strange Wilderness" needs more coats of polish on its plot and a few more truly funny scenes to make it worthwhile.
THE GRADE: C
So much comedic potential, so little payoff.
Sean Flanders is a Reporter staff writer
Be the first to comment on this story