Strange Wilderness (2007/Paramount Blu-ray + DVD Video)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: B-/C+ Extras: D Film: D
One of my
rules of thumb is that, if it is produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison
Productions, it is guaranteed to be stupid, condescending and worthless. Take Fred Wolf’s Strange Wilderness (2007) for instance, yet another would-be comedy
about a wildlife TV show hosted by a goofball (Steve Zahn) who needs to improve
his ratings quickly. Of course, the trip
by he and his crew becomes more of a salvage operation for survival than high
ratings and all hell breaks loose and…
It is
booooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring!
Jonah
Hill, Justin Long and even Joe Don Baker cannot save this train wreck which
Paramount seems to have hoped would become some kind of cult hit on home video
starting with the DVD release a while ago.
Now it is on Blu-ray and you can see and hear so much more clearly how
bad this really is and all the talent wasted.
Don’t let it waste any of your time.
Avoid it!
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is one of the poorest for a Blu-ray
release with weak color, softness and other limits that will make you think you
are watching a DVD, until you see the even worse anamorphically enhanced DVD. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 is also very weak and
one of the worst such mixes we have heard to date, while the Dolby Digital 5.1
mixes in both formats arte worse, flat, too much towards the screen and
pedestrian. Extras in both formats
include four mini-featurettes and Reel Comedy promo show on the release.
- Nicholas Sheffo
