One of the first things you’ll notice about Strange Wilderness is the mild attempt at bringing together a truly comedic cast and then getting the cast that they can afford. Perhaps that’s a bit too harsh, our main character Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) is worth a little bit more than your average actor. Now before I go on and on about the acting (which for the sake of this nature program I will not), I have to say that it’s not really bad acting but more like a bunch of guys got together and though their improv was funnier than the script. Although I get the feeling that is the case, it’s no excuse for immediately going to the raunchy or druggy humor. Everyone is stoned, we get it. In terms of the casting itself, take Adam Sandler away from any of his films and you get the basic cast of this film. However, there are two additions that may make this beast a bit more tamable. Junior (Justin Long) and Cheryl (Ashley Scott) play the two new additions to the Sandleresque cast. You know Justin Long, the Get a Mac guy. He’s the Mac. In Strange Wilderness he’s the Mac on drugs. He’s actually quite charming and has some of the funniest moments in the film, including showing off his new eye tattoos, of eyes, on his eye lids. It works much better with the visuals. Ashley Scott on the other hand annoyed me, mainly because she plays the hot bimbo that becomes one of the guys yet she’s not that hot and at that point it appears that she’s just trying to hard.

Aside from the acting, the plot and story are a bit out there but believable. At least believable for a film that’s not really all that believable in the first place. Look, the story is secondary to the humor, plain and simple. Peter’s dad was a famous nature host and now he is trying to follow in his father’s footsteps but he’s horrible and so now he’s on the holy grail of adventures to save the show. He then finds the holy grail, kills it, but it doesn’t really matter because the ending is just the point at which the director and cast give up trying to do anything. That’s right, it’s like Shakespeare deciding that Romeo and Juliet just never see each other again because if the play goes that long then Will won’t get his good ole drink on soon enough.

There’s not much more to say I’m afraid. Strange Wilderness was a diversion for about the length of the film. I’m sure I will forget most of it by the time I finish writing this review. I really want to tell you not to bother with this, but it may be worth it just to see Justin Long in an early role. Aside from that, Strange Wilderness should be put out of its misery.

So who is Ashley Scott? Take a gander.

I was very excited to get my hands on this work simply because I used to love cyberpunk. Yes, I said used to. After The Matrix, my cyberpunk infatuation came to an end but only because everyone now thought it was cool. Anyways, Pope tries to take us into the seedy underworld of the future where life is more like that residue on the inside of your car windows from smoking too many cigarettes in it and then never washing them than anything remotely better. What makes 100% better than a lot of other books is the interconnected storyline. It really was like reading short stories that just happen to include overlapping characters. That was the best part of the whole novel. Having said that, I do have some criticisms.

First, I really do not like that the stories themselves could be set anywhere and that the cyberpunk feel is nothing more than window dressing. I know that seems very direct, but the love stories are just love stories without any “cyber” vibe. Okay so the stripper shows her guts (no I am not going to reveal what that means), but it has no impact on the story itself. Hopefully Pope takes this next sentence as both a comment and a criticism: this is very similar to the way Shakespeare took very basic themes and wrapped them in different towels while retaining the same plots. We all know that William is still very popular, so even though it does bother me; at least Pope is giving the reader a sense of universality.

The artwork is decent but will definitely not sell the book. I think in this instance it is more important for the art to compliment the intricate plots rather than distract from them. I was also left wanting by the endings. As with most short stories, there is never enough time to develop characters to great extremes and their is rarely enough time to fully engross the reader. The story has to be immediate. 100% is just a few breaths away from being immediate but just doesn’t get there. This really does not take anything away from the novel or Pope, but can be chalked up to a valiant attempt.

I do plan on reading more by Pope because I am interested to see where his style goes from here. Although I was not exuberant about 100% it was good enough to hold my attention and want more. Give this one a chance if you want to see stripper guts (I am still not telling) or you want that quick short story read.