Romance in the Wilds

'Romance in the Wild' (2021)

Opening thoughts: Actually saw 'Romance in the Wild' a while back and wasn't impressed by it at all, but with music commitments and being behind on my reviewing at the time it took me a while to review it. Very nearly forgot about it, until coming across its very poor follow up 'Christmas in the Wild' as part of my Christmas completest quest without realising at first that that was a sequel. Decided to watch it again, immediately after watching that and disliking it, to give it a fairer chance and to compare.

Unfortunately, 'Romance in the Wild' was not much better on re-watch. Actually thought it was worse, with all the flaws found first time still problems and bigger (which the sequel repeated just as poorly), while finding more along the way. UPTV were responsible for quite a number of above average films, Christmas and not, but they were also responsible for a fair share of misses. When they missed, they did so big time. They did so here in what is for me one of their worst.

Good things: The scenery is nice, but there is nothing else good to say about it.

Bad things: Despite the scenery being nice, it is wasted by the chaotic editing that constantly jumps around and the poorly framed and equally un-cohesive photography. The direction is unfocused and never seemed to be in complete control or that engaged with the material.

Which unfortunately is incredibly weak. The dialogue throughout is heavy in cheese, is very flat and never flows. The story never picks up momentum, suffers from a complete lack of tension and has no charm or heart. There is little atmospheric about it and everything is taken too seriously.

The characters with no exception had little to no development and had bland or/and grating personalities, with exaggerated negative traits and groan inducing decision making. Calling the acting bad is being generous, nobody looks comfortable and it was like the cast knew the material was bad and decided to not try.

Closing thoughts: Overall, very poor.

2/10.

I usually enjoy the movies on UP but was really disappointed in Romance in the Wilds. The acting was horrible and the storyline was unrealistic. I have liked Victor Zinck Jr. Work in past, however this was not one of his best films. The writing was awful. Downright cheesy.

Lets hope the sequel is better, but I doubt it.

We had queued up a bunch of Whose Line is it Anyway on UpTV while they were advertising this movie hard. Just the ads cracked us up, especially when the plane blew up, so we were stoked to see this one.

Didn't follow the normal formula, even the opening was confusing as the timeline went out of order. Movie did not disappoint, the laughs continued throughout. We had to keep rewinding because it was so funny at times we wanted to capitalize on the hilarity. The FX were pretty bad, so more laughs there too. It is hard to believe that the FX, writing, acting, on again-off again injuries were all intentional, that this was really a spoof of cheap disaster flics (which we love).

So fun!! Can't wait for the sequel. Seriously.

Cringe fest galore in this one. Terrible acting, terrible dialog, unrealistic. Stupid decisions made by so-called professionals. The best scenes are of the forest smoke and the bear. That's all this movie had going for it.

I had such a hard time understanding the dialogue that I really didn't notice the acting talents or the goofs. I did wonder why someone would take their dog offleash in a forest... really? I did love the scenery though. Makes me proud to live in Ontario.