'Strange Wilderness'

Rating: Zero stars

BY KEVIN CRUST | Los Angeles Times

8:16 PM EST, February 1, 2008

No one can say "Strange Wilderness'" writer-producer Peter Gaulke and writer-director Fred Wolf ducked responsibility for the gross-out comedy misfire. The "Saturday Night Live" alums not only kept their names on the movie, which opened Friday without advance screenings, they loaned their monikers to the main characters.

Steve Zahn stars as Peter Gaulke, the host of a wildlife show called "Strange Wilderness" that he inherited from his late father (real-life TV personality Bill Burrud, seen in archival footage from his old programs). Allen Covert ("Grandma's Boy") is Fred Wolf, Peter's sidekick soundman.

The TV show has hit hard times with meager ratings under Peter and he's told by an exec (Jeff Garlin) that the show is being canceled in two weeks. Desperate for a big event to save the program, Peter jumps at an opportunity to capture Bigfoot on film in Ecua.dor, gathers his pot-and-beer addled crew into a rickety RV and heads south. (Well, first they go east, then north, then west and then south, which may have been some unintended metaphor for the film itself).

The movie shambles along resembling nothing more than a strung-together batch of what would be deleted scenes on some other movie's DVD. You can't really blame the script because there doesn't seem to have been much of one, with most scenes feeling improvised, and not in a good way.

Despite the presence of funny guys such as Zahn, Garlin, Justin Long and Jonah Hill, along with veteran character actors Ernest Borgnine, Joe Don Baker and Robert Patrick, the movie fails to be even passably funny. One trailer that preceded it, "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" led to more laughs.

STRANGE WILDERNESS (R). Gross-out comedy from a couple of "Saturday Night Live" grads. Don't bother. 1:27 (nonstop profane language, drug use, crude and sexual humor). At area theaters.