Fred Wolf used to be the head writer on Saturday Night Live, the flagship American comedy show, so he presumably knows a thing or two about bringing the funny. So let's be charitable and assume he wrote and directed Strange Wilderness on a six-week drug bender, or locked in the basement of a deranged fan, or in his sleep; there's nothing in this lame, low budget stoner flick that even peeps above the parapet of the ordinary.
Our hero is Steve Zahn, marijuana-marinated wildlife presenter facing falling ratings and mounting bills. To save his show, Zahn embarks on a perilous trip to the Andes in search of Bigfoot. He's accompanied by Superbad's Jonah Hill, Adam Sandler regular Allen Covert and Ashley Scott, whose role in the film is to appear as blonde and attractive as possible.
"MOUTH-BREATHING GROSS-OUT STUFF"
Strange Wilderness's best conceit is to impose Zahn's dim bulb narration over real wildlife footage, and the film raises a few weary chuckles from his stoned misapprehensions. "Bears kill over 2 million salmon a year," he drawls over some grainy shots of grizzlies. "Attacks by salmon on bears are much more rare." These gags aside, Strange Wilderness is mostly mouth-breathing gross out stuff that makes Harold and Kumar look like Some Like It Hot. It doesn't say much for a film when the comic highlight is Steve Zahn trapping his favourite appendage in a turkey's throat.
Strange Wilderness is out in the UK on 11th April 2008.