Strange Wilderness

Fred Wolf – 2008 – USA

I’ve never experienced a movie that was so bad and yet so good at the same time.  I’m not sure how it’s even possible to make such a movie.  I assume lots of weed helps, since it tends to make writers and actors think that pretty much everything is hilarious.  Considering how much of the movie simply isn’t funny, I guess you’d have to consider it a failure, but nevertheless I laughed out loud many times too.  It’s almost like it was made by two different crews and then cut together.  Some parts are clever and charming, but then other sequences are so broad and forced that it’s painful.  The latter scenes seem to involve a lot of star Steve Zahn being encouraged to just improvise acting wacky like Jerry Lewis or something.  He plays the inept host of a failing wildlife cable TV show called Strange Wilderness, which has one last chance to win some ratings before being cancelled.  A map purporting to lead to Bigfoot’s lair promises to give the show’s crew the edge it needs to stay afloat.  So, they’re off to the Andes; (even though Bigfoot lives in the U.S. northwest, doesn’t he?)  Zahn is a very likable actor, but he is saddled by the schizophrenic demands of the script, which alternately have him displaying staggering stupidity and creative genius.  Justin Long is pretty funny phoning in one of his trademark dopey slacker characters; (in fact, he was in another Bigfoot-related movie a couple years prior – The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, 2006).  Everyone else is cast to type, sometimes effectively, often boringly.  It’s a weird movie; I can’t say I liked it and I can’t say I hated it.  I laughed a lot and I was disappointed by how bad it was.  So as far as a recommendation goes, you’re on your own.  Good luck.