One segment of the comedy genre is the ‘R’ rated comedy. Typically these are puerile; filled with gross sexual and scatological humor. The latest member of this less than illustrious club is ‘Strange Wilderness’. This flick is cut from the same cloth as the plethora of others of the ilk with nothing really presented to differentiate it from the pack. This is actually an example of ‘idiot’ comedies. The whole premise, what there is of it, is to make even the stupidest people in the audience feel superior to the morons on the screen. Now there is actually a place for such a comedy. It is targeted for a very specific demographic, high school and college aged guys. One reason a film like this works for them is there is usually assistance by copious quantities of alcoholic beverages and various psychotropic pharmaceuticals. If you have to sit through a film like this without such means of mood and perception alteration it will not seem funny. The ancillary audience that will enjoy this is a group of grown men who are rained out of their weekly softball game and have a couple of cases of beer and several pizzas at the ready. They will be able to channel their inner frat boy and have a reasonable laugh. If your wife or girlfriend walks out of the room rolling her eyes whenever a ‘Three Stooges’ marathon comes on cable you can be certain that she will not like this flick at all.

The film was written, and I use that term very loosely, by Peter Gaulke and Fred Wolf. Gaulke wrote ‘Ice Age: The Meltdown’ a sequel to the animated hit ‘Ice Age’ and was a staff writer on ‘Saturday Night Live’ from 1995 to o1996 which some will argue was a lackluster year at best. Wolf severed as SNL’s head writer for some four years and also wrote scripts for movies featuring Saturday Night Live alumni such as ‘Joe Dirt’, ‘Dickie Roberts’, ‘Dirty Work’ and ‘Without a Paddle’. If you are familiar with any or all of these flicks you will see a trend here. Gaulke and Wolf are well trained in stand up and short comedy skits but would seem to have some way to go with writing a cohesive story to fill 90 minutes of film. Like there other flicks this one is a string of sketches that were too raunchy for television. There is so much ‘genital humor’ here that the drunkest guy watching will start to cringe. Most of us will laugh, first making sure no one is watching, at a good hit to the groin joke. Let’s face it this is why a lot of people still watch ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’. But enough is enough. This plot device is completely overused here to the point that an actual baseball bat to the crouch would be a welcomed relief for the viewers.

Basically, the story, what there is of it, concerns Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn). He has inherited a wildlife television series from his father; sort of the ‘Mutual of Omaha’ type show. While it was highly successful under his father’s guidance Peter has run it into the ground for the two years he has been in charge. The network executives have given Peter only two weeks to turn the ratings around or they will cancel the series. This would mean unemployment for Peter and his series sidekick and best friend Fred Wolf (Allen Covert). He comes across an old map that is supposed to show the location of Bigfoot in South America so Peter decides that that would may his series an overnight sensation and save the day. He gathers together the typical ‘R’ comedy troupe of losers, stoners and geeks and gets on the way. Joining Peter and Fred are Cooker (Jonah Hill), Whitaker (Kevin Hefferman), Danny (Peter Dante) and Junior (Justin Long). That is pretty much it. The dialogue is overly peppered with the dreaded ‘F’ word and there are more poop jokes then present at a drunken frat party. Considering all the injuries their crotches took during the making of this film I sincerely hope they were not provided with padding or other means of protection. This at least would ensure they do not continue as a viable part of the gene pool. There is one scene where Peter has his member stuck in the mouth of a turkey. A beautify and amply endowed nurse tries to massage the turkey’s neck to free him but makes matters worse. Like too many SNL skits this bit seems to go on endlessly with no hope of stopping.

The film was directed Wolf and the first sign of this film going off track is the fact that the protagonists are directly named after the co-writers. This is because the flick was originally a series of skits done over several years. As the director it might seem that Wolf’s primary function was to make sure the camera was pointed at the cast and the production assistant in charge of rolling joints was on time for work. Speaking of the cast there are some extremely strange choices for the ancillary parts. Ernest Borgnine, Joe Don Baker and Harry Hamlin all make appearances here and hopefully have fired their managers since. As with many little films Wolf did make sure that parts were created for his wife Meg and their daughter Molly. Also present is Ashley Scott, a beautiful and very talented actress. She was incredible in the now cancelled CBS series ‘Jericho’ and plays a tomboyish addition to the stoner patrol. Her main qualifications for this role is that she is blond and in possession of breasts. How this film was made but ‘Jericho’ gets cancelled is a sad commentary on the tastes of the American public. Long has a lot of experience playing stoned out characters is the best of the male cast here. Now that his PC-Mac commercials are back on the air hopefully he will still be able to get work. Zahn is usually much better in parts like this. He has that slacker character down pat but here there are too many improvisation group comedians here so his abilities are washed out.

One last thing here; this film is released to DVD by Paramount. Please do not hold this against them. They have one of the finest catalogues of films and televisions series sets available on disc. Even the best home run slugger in professional baseball will strike out once in awhile. This is the case here with Paramount.