Blu-ray Review: Strange Wilderness (2008)

Now Available on Blu-ray

Also Available on DVD

You have to be a fan of actor Steve Zahn to be able to appreciate the loony mayhem that is director Fred Wolf’s Strange Wilderness. Fortunately, this is one prerequisite that I’ve aced ever since I witnessed my fellow Minnesota native initially playing the sweet, closeted Reality Bites character amidst a terrific ensemble of actors in Ben Stiller’s directorial work.

Balancing out blockbusters with indie films, he followed this up with more great little-seen turns over the years (Safe Men, Happy, Texas), but it wasn't until he finally stole the spotlight away from such larger-than-life celebrity presences as Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, and Don Cheadle, first in Hanks’ underrated, sunny ‘60s feel-great musical comedy That Thing You Do! before he brought a bizarre mixture of humor and pathos to his small time hoodlum turn in Steven Soderbergh’s brilliant Out of Sight that people started to pay attention in a bigger way.

Although unfortunately, despite some truly memorable and instantly quotable laugh-out-loud moments in this film penned by Fred Wolf and Peter Gaulke that finds Zahn starring as the inept son who’s inherited his deceased Jack Hanna-like father’s nature television series, Strange Wilderness loses its way shortly after the characters hit the road in a series of escalating, tired, gross out, and cliched “outsiders on a journey” gags.

And despite the fact that only a third of the way into the roughly 90 minute movie, most viewers will feel like channel flipping as though they've stumbled onto the movie on television and moreover feel the strange sense they’ve seen it all before in countless other Happy Madison productions from executive producer Adam Sandler-- the main reason that the film succeeds at all (in the precious few times that it does) and what kept me watching for its entire running time was none other than Steve Zahn.

Coming right off of an impressive dramatic portrayal in Werner Herzog’s acclaimed Vietnam-set biopic Rescue Dawn co-starring Christian Bale, Zahn is instantly believable in familiar comedy mode as the fictitious version of Peter Gaulke.

The ill-prepared host of the now laughably awful series a three a.m. time slot-- Gaulke’s show is just weeks away from justifiable and long overdue cancellation by network executive Jeff Garlin. So in one last ditch attempt to bring back the viewers and make his father proud, Zahn leads his group of even more clueless staffers (including Allen Covert, Jonah Hill and Justin Long) on a journey to find Bigfoot by traveling down into central America.

Of course, we know they're completely unprepared for the dangers that face them given the group's prior tendency to prep for shows with voice-overs written on bar napkins, nonsensical and erroneous “facts” and pseudo-intellectual observations like “it is estimated that the faster a shark swims, the more distance he covers in a given period of time,” and enlisting crew members to don animal costumes to horrific results. And sure enough, it isn’t long before they’re flat broke and find themselves truly trying to survive in some very “strange” wilderness indeed.

A few years following the success of the movie’s origins as comedic shorts from Wolf and Gaulke via an independently produced series of short video “parodies of wildlife shows… which [were] eventually [aired] on Comedy Central,” former Saturday Night Live writers, stand-up comics and TV writers Gaulke and Wolf decided to turn that idea into a feature length work.

Kick-starting their ambition to see it as a movie by crafting their own version of it on video for potential financiers-- Wolf acknowledges that time and again they encountered “a lot of people interested in making it into a TV show… until Adam Sandler and his producing partner Jack Giarraputo read the script.”

With the blessing of Happy Madison Productions and Sandler’s name enabling them to attract some top-notch talent including Ernest Borgnine (in an inspired casting decision made after seeing him on SpongeBob SquarePants), soon the film was set into motion. And while one can’t argue with some of the incredible performers involved like the always-welcome Justin Long as the perpetually stoned, creepily tattooed new crew member and fun cameos with Robert Patrick and Joe Don Baker—- not to long after the movie's incredibly addictive and wholly original set-up-- the film's tone is destroyed by excess.

Namely in unsuccessfully trying to juggle so many different characters (including a bizarre and overdone turn by Jonah Hill that grates on the nerves within seconds) and an increasing over-reliance on disgusting sight gags-- soon the great premise about the dim-witted host is left by the wayside in lieu of sequences involving animals attacking our lead in the privates and-- I'm not kidding-- an entire conversation centering on the fact that a character's name is Dick.

And overall, Wilderness is a movie that holds our interest for the first portion as we see some of the characters in action creating what has to be the worst animal show ever captured on film-- making the screenwriters’ initial feedback that it would’ve probably worked best as a television show seem especially true in hindsight.

With a great deal of enthusiasm, the actors all try their hardest but sadly, there’s not much to like about a film that alienates more viewers with each successive scene that goes for laughs in the crudest possible manner, forgetting just what made the first act so damn funny to begin with.

Typically for the format, the Blu-ray quality of the 2008 work is quite impressive given the stellar sound and heightened depth perception, however since it was purposely filmed to visually hearken back to 1970s wildlife shows, it’s not a great improvement over the DVD so those who already own it may want to skip the upgrade.

Containing some extra features that relish in the repulsion of the infamous “turkey scene,” Jonah Hill’s bizarre Eddie Vedder modeled song performed alongside Justin Long, a veritable press kit extra on the film just added onto the disc and deleted scenes—the sole standout that shows exactly what the cast is capable of is titled “What Do We Do?” which finds Zahn, Long, Hill, Covert, and Borgnine all riffing in a hilarious exchange about Jack Nicholson, Nell Carter, and others.

As they improvise and challenge one another to be funnier, you can sense Long’s polite discomfort as he apologetically blames his crude outbursts on his character rather than himself (while seated next to the legendary Borgnine) but it’s a great example of just putting a bunch of creative and comically gifted people in a room together and letting them rip.

Likewise, it’s a terrific indication that—instead of the gross-out gags and over-the-top effects-- if Gaulke and Wolf would’ve done more scenes like the one featured in this extra over the course of the film, perhaps they’d be sitting with a much more successful and far less formulaic Happy Madison Production that’s memorable for something other than just simply marveling at the next ridiculous nature observation to be uttered by Zahn’s host.

DVD Review: WALL-E (3-Disc Special Edition)

On DVD November 18

In honor of this week's DVD & Blu-ray release of Pixar's incredible animated film, WALL-E, I'm offering you an insider's view of the DVD that Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Pixar Animation Studios were kind enough to send my way. However, before I go into the DVD features, first I'll serve up an excerpt of my original theatrical review of WALL-E, originally published on July 6, 2008.

WALL-E
Directed by Andrew Stanton

"Although most of us run from fix-ups, even if they are preferable in my humble opinion to speed-dating, matchmaking websites, and singles bars, imagine what a tough sell it would be to try and set up a friend like WALL-E. The pitch would have to be well-rehearsed but would most likely go something like this: “I know this great guy. Well, he’s self-employed which in our technology driven society is really impressive… oh, well, technically he’s in waste allocation, actually. He loves movies—Hello Dolly is his favorite and he listens to show-tunes all day. Yes, I’m sure he likes females. Other hobbies? Well, he collects things… oh, um sporks, Rubik’s Cubes, bras, bowling pins, Zippo lighters. Personality? Well, he’s someone of few words, kind of a loner… no, actually, he doesn’t really have any friends but you just know he’s one of the good ones. Wait-- where are you going?”

Needless to say, if WALL-E lived in today’s society and not seven hundred years in the future, he’d be the prime candidate to star in a modern remake of the Ernest Borgnine classic Marty. If you know, it was animated by those wizards at Pixar who by now probably have so many awards that they could possibly build an entire studio out of gold. There’s just something instantly huggable about the titular lead character in their latest film WALL-E that turns viewers into the office busybody, the over-eager relative or worse, those smug married friends who all just want to see this adorable Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class robot find himself a nice robotic girl already. And while we’re at it, hopefully a fellow movie buff unafraid of director Gene Kelly’s less-than-stellar 1969 Barbra Streisand film Hello Dolly and someone with whom WALL-E can roam his bleak, deserted, overwhelmingly trash filled, sun-drenched and beige version of Earth set seven hundred years in the future where rampant consumerism and greed have taken the color out of everything with nary a blue sky, crystal clear lake, or flower, and one in which humankind abandoned years earlier to live blissfully ignorant, fat and happy reaping the benefits of virtual reality in space."
(Click Here to Read the Rest of the Review)

The 3-Disc Special Edition DVD

With a bonus third disc that contains a DisneyFile Digital Copy that's compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media Player allowing you to bring the film with you on your laptop or portable video device (like the newest generations of iPods), the true overwhelmingly impressive content of the set is spread out over two state-of-the-art discs.

Overall, it features-- as director Andrew Stanton noted in the press release-- documentaries and behind-the-scenes content that "are treated like an AFI special [wherein the Pixar employees]... explain and talk about these things at the level that we talk about them day to day." These were made via Pixar Studio's "in-house DVD department," which lets viewers inside the offices of that amazing studio in order to give us "a huge scope of how much knowledge and talent goes into "every aspect of making an animated film as highly complicated and intellectually challenging as WALL-E.

With a crystal-clear transfer of the film on Disc 1 which also contains a promo clip, trailers, feature-length filmmaker commentary, deleted scenes, and Presto the original animated short which preceded the film, two of the major standouts on Disc 1 come in the form of one of those terrifically detailed documentaries which focuses on "Animation Sound Design" with Star Wars veteran and master sound-man Ben Burtt as well as the brand new, knock-em-dead short BURN-E.

With BURN-E, a new character who like our beloved trash compactor also fulfills a duty, with BURN's being as a repairman, we're treated to an imaginative and ingeniously hilarious action packed and old school blend of comedy and musical choreography reminiscent of the Disney heyday as BURN-E who loves Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as much as WALL-E cherishes "Hello Dolly" keeps getting interrupted by our mischievous garbage-bot mid-repair. With tools flying off into space and his nerves wearing thin, Stanton's love of both classic Disney animation as well as the work of Kubrick shines through as we encounter a 2001: A Space Odyssey homage in a short that not only was good enough to have been included somehow in the theatrical film but also would've helped aid in WALL-E's overly sluggish, dark, and dissatisfying finale of the otherwise brilliant Pixar movie.

Additionally, Ben Burtt's behind-the-scenes struggles to create every single sound effect from the voices of the nearly silent characters Eve and WALL-E to each individual beep and squeak is a fascinating film-school quality featurette that celebrates the history of the Disney sound department as we're taken behind-closed-doors to look at the wondrous artifacts from rain machines and more but also a tribute to our limitless imagination as Burtt toys with a slinky and other everyday devices used in unpredictable ways to create what on the surface seems to be a cacophony of sound but somehow blended together makes the memorable universe of WALL-E. Admitting that it took a full year just to find the right sounds for the main characters, the tireless work from the sound department which is made much harder when working in the realm of animation instead of live action and twice that when the characters seldom speak, is in the end described as consisting of tens of thousands of decisions to ultimately lead to the acceptance of thousands of sounds that when played together help make or break each and every scene that makes it an overall whole.

View a Sound Featurette from MovieWeb

While the second disc is divided into two different menus for film fans or for families and contains so many extras that you could spend days delving into each and every one, by far the most impressive inclusion in the lot was the award-winning director Leslie Iwerks's compelling roughly ninety minute documentary The Pixar Story. Fascinating enough that it could've been released theatrically or at least been submitted into numerous film festivals, it's a wonderful portrait of the approximately twenty year history of the animation studio that chronicles the lives and professional involvement of its three key players-- John Lassetter, a Disney lover who would go onto direct the wildly successful Toy Story, computer and physics genius Ed Catmull who blended together science and programming with animation as he became not only responsible for the first use of 3D in a live action 2D film but also helped transform George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd., as well as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who met up with the Pixar men at precisely the right time, believing in their ability and becoming their greatest financial advocate and backer in a relationship that still holds strong today.

Weaving in history of animation and especially the men's love of the classic Disney cartoons that inspired them, along with great insider tales about life at CalArts studying alongside future Disney animators turned filmmakers including Tim Burton and Brad Bird as they were mentored by the lovingly dubbed "Nine Old Men," who helped establish the distinctly Disney emphasis of injecting emotion into hand-drawn images, it's a gripping and passionate piece of filmmaking.

The Pixar Story also recounts some of the checkered history between Pixar and Disney when animators were scared to death that 3D and computer animation would make the exquisite hand-drawn lines of the Disney studio obsolete as people began losing jobs in a technological shakeup and Lassetter was let go when his mind and imagination for the blending of animation and technology proved far too daring to his parent studio.

Additionally containing some great personal anecdotes from others associated like George Lucas who was always at the forefront, embracing computer potential before it was hip, along with interviews with Lassetter's wife who had to share her husband with the overwhelming demands of Pixar, above all it's an ode to the power of imagination and the oft-repeated thesis that Lassetter notes in that "art challenges technology and technology inspires the art," as so many diverse talents came together whether they were computer PhDs or animators to fully embrace a new exciting medium of filmmaking.

A must-see for anyone who owns more than one Pixar film (and I'd venture to say that'd be basically every DVD owner) as well as aspiring artists and history buffs-- much like Disc 1's short film BURN-E, Disc 2's The Pixar Story is not only worth the investment but incredible enough that one wished they would've been included either as a double feature with WALL-E or somehow more been made more accessible to audiences without DVD or Blu-ray players.

A beautifully crafted set, despite some clumsy packaging that's a bit frustrating for those whose hands are bigger than WALL-E's as the discs open out sideways, WALL-E is nonetheless packaged to be as efficient and compact as the little, adorable main character himself and sure to capture even more hearts when you can bring him home.

The Rocker (2008)

As he says in The Rocker,
"too loud," is not in Rainn Wilson's vocabulary.

What can I say about Rainn Wilson?

Aside from believing he’s phenomenally underrated as the sycophantic Dwight Schrute to Steve Carell’s Michael Scott on NBC’s award-winning The Office, I’ve never really found him that promising as an actor. He seems to be one of those comedians who does one thing really well and then milks it for all its worth… and then some.

After bombing in his hosting duty at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards when no less than Dustin Hoffman ad-libbed the ceremony’s funniest line (which I won’t even begin to repeat here but involved making love to Javier Bardem), Wilson seemed to have suffered the fate of a majority of TV stars in being more or less pigeonholed to his alter ego Dwight Schrute. And this was all the more evident during his squirm-inducing, awfully delivered “Fertile Myrtle,” “That ain’t no etch-a-sketch” brief cameo opposite the Oscar nominated Ellen Page in last year’s critical darling, Juno. For proof replay his performance in a scene that — despite my adoration for the film and Diablo Cody’s writing — I still feel would’ve been best left on the cutting room floor.

So needless to say, when I first saw the trailer for The Rocker, I braced myself for the worst in what looked like would ultimately be a School of Rock rehash, minus Jack Black. But having been a fan of two of British director Peter Cattaneo’s previous films — The Full Monty and Lucky Break -- I wanted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, I was nearly forced into merriment at a screening complete with The Rocker groupies who were coming back for their fifth, sixth, and even seventh screening of the film. If movie characters lived in an alternate universe, no doubt Kate Hudson’s Almost Famous self-described “Band-Aid,” Penny Lane would be proud. In fact, it’s ironic that it called to mind the aforementioned films since as a word-of-mouth campaign I hadn’t seen one this effective since the likes of Juno or School of Rock. And while I don’t think I’ll be coming back tri-weekly and will be able to hold off until DVD for another viewing, sure enough, when the film started, I quickly found myself in hysterics. Additionally, I realized that, while indeed most will compare the film to School of Rock and Wilson to Black, it’s been quite awhile since Jack Black genuinely made me laugh. In fact, the last time could very well have been in School of Rock.

Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to forgo the advice of “accept no substitutes,” and let Wilson and not Black rock the audience for 102 minutes. Obviously, it helps if one is old enough to remember the '80s as we open via a pitch-perfect flashback in Cleveland, 1986 as Wilson’s overly enthusiastic and extremely sweaty drummer Robert “Fish” Fishman and his hair metal band Vesuvius (led by no less than Arrested Development’s Will Arnett as the front-man) rock their own on-screen audience. On the cusp of a record deal with a major label, Vesuvius discovers that fame comes with a price — namely nepotism — when the one thing standing in their path is Fish, as he’s ousted by disloyal band-mates and an industry man’s nephew is lined up to step in as their new drummer.

In one of several overly-broad sequences that begin with refreshingly wild comedic abandon until becoming the cinematic equivalent of a run-on sentence (as it crosses the line into the just plain chaotic and overly ridiculous), pratfall prone Fish chases down his band’s van. Running with the speed of Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 and attacking the vehicle with his drumsticks, Wilson's Fish constantly battles like a zombie that refuses to stay dead in a horror movie. Similar to Fish’s admission that “too loud is not in my vocabulary,” Wilson never lets a moment go by without chewing every piece of scenery in sight a la Jack Black and Will Ferrell. And while he does indeed garner some laughs, as it continues — quite similar to the way it plays out on The Office — it’s The Rocker’s minor Dwight Schrute-like characters who manage to earn the longest laughs with ironically the shortest amounts of screen time.

The film catches up with Fish twenty years later, in an all too identifiable dead-end-job as a phone-based customer service representative. But after a coworker forces him to listen to the latest smash success album by Vesuvius, Fish snaps, a fight ensues, and a few scenes later he’s out both a job and a relationship when his long-suffering girlfriend Jane Krakowski evicts him from her apartment.

Now stuck sleeping on an inflatable air mattress bed in the attic of his sister Lisa (Jane Lynch) and her husband Stan (Jeff Garlin), Fish gets an unlikely second chance at rock success when his nerdy, awkward M.I.T.-bound nephew Matt (Josh Gad) recruits his reluctant uncle to play in his band, A.D.D.

Hoping to stand for Attention Deficit Disorder instead of “add,” Fish soon fills out the small ensemble consisting of keyboardist Matt along with his post-modern, unsmiling, no-nonsense bassist Amelia (Emma Stone) and the gorgeous but melancholic lead singer Curtis (musician Teddy Geiger). Although Curtis’ perpetual abandonment issues over his deadbeat father comprise most of the depressing lyrics, Fish begins to rock their songs metal-style. The change is made first to their horror but then after they’re boosted to fame via an unflattering “naked drummer” YouTube video starring Fish, soon A.D.D. becomes an overnight sensation.

While the film makes Fish’s buffoon-like behavior the impetus for their success, there’s no denying the undeniable talent of real-life musician Geiger, whose music in the film is so impressive, it’ll immediately send you chasing down the soundtrack.

And while the music does indeed get your toes tapping and there is a similar “car test” scene to hear a demo while you drive, the film never mistakes itself for last year’s amazing art house ode to musical love, Once, always remembering its initial goal is to first and foremost make audiences laugh.

And like the ensemble quality of The Office, The Rocker’s ensemble makes the film a success with great, subtle, flirtatious support by Christina Applegate as Curtis’s hot mom (in a role that reminded me of her excellent turn opposite Ferrell in Anchorman), the under-utilized Will Arnett, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin, and Christopher Guest frequent cast member Jane Lynch, all of whom are a joy to comedy fans.

Yet, I was completely bowled over by the hilariously hyper and obnoxious turn by Jason Sudeikis playing the ultimate hype-monger in the form of the endlessly quotable, politically incorrect, and sleazy, two-faced sycophantic industry man, David Marshall. After just a few ridiculously off-the-wall lines penned by husband and wife screenwriting team Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show) and Wallace Wolodarsky (The Simpsons), I found myself looking forward to the next appallingly hilarious thing he would say and as engrossed by his brief screen time just as much as I was during last week’s Tropic Thunder where Tom Cruise played a similarly hammy exec as well.

Hmm… something tells me we’ll be getting a new Will Ferrell styled Frat Pack buddy comedy about industry executives in the near future. And if Ferrell’s busy, possibly they could employ Rainn Wilson and Jack Black. Since, goodness knows that while they definitely are capable of making us laugh, both could use the benefit of superior writing to make them the genuine stars of their own films. However, until then, there are plenty of backstage antics in this film to keep you entertained. So ultimately, to misquote AC/DC, to “those about to rock” I “salute you.”

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

Director:
Jeff Garlin

In order to get out of yet another physical education requirement in college, I halfheartedly signed up for the most convenient health class that would fit into my schedule. Enrolled in Foods and Nutrition, I found myself growing even hungrier day by day as our obsessive teacher railed against the perils of entrees overflowing with fat and sugar and like a preacher, going off on tangents including only one I still remember to this day which is her belief that in order to solve America’s obesity problem, we should find a way to stop emotionalizing food. From comfort food, to chocolates on Valentine’s Day, to cookies at Christmas, to countless dinners on first dates, she warned that as long as we made food a part of a bonding ritual to get closer to another person, we were going to grow larger. While on one hand, she may have had a point, on the other, despite the discomfort most of us feel about the nerve-racking first date dinner audition, she failed to recognize that not only is getting to know someone fun but in doing so, sometimes it’s nice to share food as well or as Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin put it in his newest film, sometimes we just want someone to eat cheese with.

Part Italian, I’m a cheese lover from way back whether it is cooked into dishes like ziti or piled onto pizza, the title instantly attracted me and after watching the entire movie, I can happily say that the charms of the entire film go way beyond its cute title. Previously known to me as Jeff, one of my favorite Curb characters who as Larry David’s agent/loyal sidekick has a laid back manner and willingness to go along with whatever ridiculous situation the two find themselves in, no questions asked, Garlin makes us forget that more scheming character within minutes of Cheese but keeps one important trait and that is his willingness to let others shine and go along with the given situation. Possibly indicative of his own background working on Second City, Garlin’s character James may be our main character but is consistently upstaged by the rest of the cast. However, he’s the heart of our film as, in an update of the classic Oscar winning Marty, to which Cheese makes several references, we follow the thirty-nine year old struggling actor who works on Second City while looking for his big break, living with his mother (Mina Kolb) and trying to meet a nice woman.

Overweight and frustrated, James is the type of character who would’ve driven my Nutrition professor nuts with his nightly ritual of going to the local mom and pop market to buy snacks filled with sugar and fat such as his beloved rice pudding from a shopkeeper who, like a bartender to an alcoholic, always wants to cut him off. Prone to leaving his Overeaters Anonymous meeting (of which he is the only male) during the final silent meditation and hanging around with his scene-stealing best friend Luca (David Pasquesi), things begin looking up for James when he meets the wacky, hot, ice cream server Beth (Sarah Silverman) who teases James with ice cream delights and a trip lingerie shopping as they embark on an awkward courtship. While Silverman’s Beth is arguably the most enticing yet maddeningly odd girl James has probably ever come into contact with, he also meets cute with Stella, a like-minded jazz fan and teacher (Bonnie Hunt), who may be better suited to the self-loathing James.

Far from having everything work out in a predictable manner, the freewheeling Cheese, although written by its star Garlin, feels refreshingly improvised and inspiringly natural in even the most ridiculous situations and not only will it make Garlin’s Curb fans look at him in a new light but it’s also great date fare for those of us who, like James are also looking for someone to eat cheese with. And as Larry David might say, that’s “pretty, pretty, pretty good” indeed.