PSA: A film you need to see

My friend Daniel recently wrote a post about a theater in his native Minneapolis that had been showing In Bruges up until very recently. He was amazed, that in this day and age where hundreds of new releases hit theaters each year, that a film so seemingly small could stay in one place for 19+ weeks. As you can see in the post comments, it was a sentiment that was shared by many folks across the United States, with readers chiming in to let him know how long the film had been playing in their neck of the woods, and of other films with abundantly long theatrical stays.

It was then, with a heavy heart, that I was reminded of a movie that enjoyed an all-too brief run in theaters this year: the stoner comedy Strange Wilderness. Featuring an all-star cast (Steve Zahn, Jonah Hill, Justin Long, etc.), the zany comedy managed a scant take of less than seven million dollars, all in a run of little more than a month. All this for a major motion picture released by Paramount Pictures - what has the world come to?

I can not be clear enough: Strange Wilderness is a film that must be seen by everyone. Crossing into genres comedies previously were afraid to breach and featuring performances unseen in modern cinema, Wilderness is an epic in humorocity that will go down in the annals of comedic cinematic lore along with Airplane! and Caddyshack. No golden cows are spared, no viewer left unslayed.

The good news in all this is that, although you missed your chance to get Strange on the big screen (where it ideally would be seen), it's not too late to taste the exquisite pleasures of Zahn, Hill and company - Wilderness hit DVD shelves on May 20th. Though, if your patient, I'm sure that the movie gods will see to it that this fine film lives on in the form of cult showings a la The Rocky Horror Picture Show, sporadically finding a home in theaters for decades to come.

Here's my original review. In case you forgot, the rating looked kinda like this:

Fletch's Film Rating:

"You're the best...around!"


Note: this post was a part of Lazy Eye Theatre's Bizarro Blog-a-thon. Whatever you do, don't click on the link or the picture.