Strange Wilderness

Strange Wilderness is a 2008 American comedy adventure film produced by Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions for Paramount Pictures. Directed by Fred Wolf, who also co wrote the film with Peter Gaulke, the film stars Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Kevin Heffernan, Ashley Scott, Peter Dante, Harry Hamlin, Robert Patrick, Joe Don Baker, Justin Long, Jeff Garlin, and Ernest Borgnine. Production took place in 2005 but the film did not receive a theatrical release until February 1, 2008. Strange Wilderness centers around the crew members of the titular fictional nature show heading to Ecuador to investigate a Bigfoot sighting in order to keep the show from being cancelled. The film received negative reviews and was a box office bomb, making less than $7 million against a $20 million budget.

Peter Gaulke is the host of an unsuccessful nature program called Strange Wilderness which was originally hosted by Peter's late father. One day, Peter and his sidekick/soundman Fred Wolf are called in to K Pip where they run into Sky Pierson, the host of a more successful wildlife show which is in the middle of a deal to be transferred to K Pip. Peter and Fred are told by network head Ed Lawson about the negative aspects of Strange Wilderness since the death of Peter's father like low ratings, poor content, inappropriate footage, referring to all indigenous peoples as pygmies aside from the littering, and bad things happening to people in footage like an alligator attack on someone and a guy at a peace rally who was on fire. Unless something big happens, Strange Wilderness will be cancelled in two weeks. Peter brainstorms ideas to keep Strange Wilderness on the air with Fred, equipment manager Lynn Cooker, driver Danny Gutierrez, camera man Junior, and his father's old friend/original cameraman Milas. Bill Calhoun, his dad's friend, brings him photos of Bigfoot hiding in Ecuador and a map to his cave. Pierson has offered $1,000 for the map. Unable to pay this, Peter tells Bill that he will have it in a week at his mountain cabin. Peter, Fred, Lynn, Danny, and Junior start preparing for the long trip. They also bring in two more people like Whitaker, a former car mechanic now animal handler, and Cheryl, a travel agent. Stopping to shoot footage of sea lions, Danny dresses up as a seal for better angles, gets attacked by a shark, and ends up hospitalized. Outside the hospital, Peter and Fred get into trouble with a local gang, get their front teeth knocked out, and have to go to a dentist. These incidents cause more funds being drained. They arrive at Bill's cabin only to learn he already sold the map to Pierson. However, Bill makes a copy of the map from security cameras. He also enlists the help of renowned tracker Gus Hayden, but they are unable to pay him. While urinating in the bushes, Peter is attacked by a mother turkey, ending up with his penis inside its mouth. They rush him to a hospital to remove it from his penis. A wildlife ranger and a conservationist that "own" the turkey stop the doctor from cutting the turkey's head off, offering a $5,000 reward for the bird's return. Continuing their journey, they eventually reach Ecuador. There, they meet up with Dick, an explorer and a friend of Bill who takes them to Gus Hayden. The next morning however, they wake up to find that Gus has left, stolen their equipment, and Cheryl is missing. Though hesitant and with Peter not willing to give up, Dick agrees to lead the group through the jungle. During the night, Cheryl catches up with them and explains she saw Gus stealing their equipment and pretended to run off with him so she could get the map back. The next day while crossing the river, Dick is attacked and eaten by piranhas. Coming across Pierson's camp, they find he and his team have been killed by the local pygmies. The group then gathers the equipment and eventually reach Bigfoot's cave. While filming, a confused Bigfoot steps out and gets gunned down by the scared group. Not sure how to end the show in a good way later that night, Cooker comes up with the idea of showing Bigfoot committing suicide. The surviving members return to the studio to show Lawson their footage where they tried to resuscitate Bigfoot. Lawson berates them for their ridiculousness and cancels Strange Wilderness. This leads to a fight within the group. One year later, Peter gets a visit from Milas who encourages him to revive Strange Wilderness. Peter gets everyone back together and they make an episode about the shark attack using footage of them vomiting into the shark's mouth at the scene of the incident as well as Danny getting his arm bitten by that shark. Peter and Fred show it to Lawson. Impressed with the footage, Lawson states to Pete that people love shark attacks. With Pierson dead, Lawson puts Strange Wilderness back on the air. A postscript states that Strange Wilderness became successful again and dominated the 3:00 AM slot. Six months later, Peter's group went searching for the Loch Ness Monster where hilarity occurred in Scotland. They remain friends to this day.

The film was released on February 1, 2008 by Paramount Pictures. It grossed $3 million over its first weekend, placing in the 13th spot in the North American box office. It is in 42nd place on the Metacritic list of the worst reviewed films ever (with seven or more reviews). Joe Leydon of Variety called the film "a slovenly, slapped together stoner comedy". In his review for The New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, "What rankles isn’t the gross out humor or the verbal non sequiturs, which are expected, even welcome, in this sort of movie. It’s the smug sense of entitlement—that of intoxicated dweebs tittering endlessly and obnoxiously at their own supposed cleverness. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is the gold standard in this genre. Strange Wilderness is a counterfeit bill."