'NATURE CALLS': Four Stars (Out of Five)
Patton Oswalt and Johnny Knoxville play rival brothers who grew up disagreeing the most on scouting (which their father loved). Oswalt plays a scout leader who so desperately wants his scout troop to get more involved in scouting that he kidnaps them from his brother's sleepover and takes them on a real wilderness scouting trip. His obsessed brother, Knoxville, goes crazy trying to track them down. The movie has a great premise and some big big laughs. It misfired finding the right audience but I thought it was hilarious at times.
Oswalt plays Randy and Knoxville plays Kirk. Randy grew up loving scouting, much to his father's approval, and became a scout leader (following in his dad's footsteps). Kirk grew up hating scouting and went into business with his friend Gentry (the hilarious Rob Riggle). Kirk and his wife Janine (Maura Tierney) recently adopted a ten-year-old boy from Africa named Dwande (Thiecoura Cissoko). One weekend Randy is supposed to take his troop camping (in a parking lot) and the kids all bail on him to go to Dwande's sleepover at Kirk's house. Randy, inspired by his elderly ill father, rounds up all the kids from his brother's house and takes them on a real wilderness camping trip (without anyone's permission). Kirk and Gentry try to track them down, obsessively, along with another father (comedian Patrice O'Neal in his last film) while the kids of course learn something about themselves and surviving in the wilderness.
The movie got a lot of bad reviews from critics and movie nerds but I think it missed it's target audience. I almost passed on the movie because of the negative hype but I'm glad I decided to give it a try. I thought it was very funny quite frequently. The cast is all topnotch and writer/director Todd Rohal did a great job of delivering a madcap 80's style comedy. It's of course too crude and over the top for some but that's what I loved about it; it has an amazing amount of unchecked aggressive comedic energy. It's raunchy and vulgar and at the same time it's a heartfelt R rated kids' flick (just like it's 80's inspirations). The haters are going to hate but I loved it!
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