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    A Walk in the Woods

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    I find it very funny to have just sat through “A Walk in the Woods”, which doesn’t have a plot that’s all that different from the Canadian horror film “Backcountry” which I saw a few weeks ago. Well, except for the fact that this Ken Kwapis project is a comedy. Not as many people end up being eaten by bears this time.

    Author Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) comes to the sudden realization. Despite making his living off of writing memoirs, he hasn’t really ventured out into the wild, or done anything adventurous since he and his wife (Emma Thompson) moved to Georgia ten years ago. Joined by his old friend Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte) the two decide to tackle the Appalachian Trail: 2,200 miles through 14 different states.

    This movie has a lot of old jokes in it. I mean jokes that are for old people, about old people, but also setups and punch lines you can see a mile away because they’re old jokes. That’s when the movie is at its worst. As soon as you see a bunk bed that Bryson and Katz are going to have to share, you know what the gag is going to be. As soon as these guys are on the trail you count down the minutes before they’re going to encounter every obligatory camping trip comedy cliché: the jokes about being unprepared, the bad weather that comes out of nowhere, the bad food, the wild animals, etc. If that’s not bad enough, I found a lot of the comedy to be contrived. Bryson has been on camping trips and vacations before. He also lives on Earth and owns a television. Inexplicably though, he can’t fathom the idea that in the wild there might not be an outhouse handy? As with any buddy road trip movie we also see a lot of outrageous characters along the way. Some are fun (I liked seeing Mary Steenburgen in a small role) Others are cartoonish and belong in a completely different movie, like Kristen Schaal’s character Mary Ellen.

    This isn’t necessarily a criticism of the film, but one element that really surprised me is how… vulgar the script is. This is a story about two old guys (they’re in their late 50s/early 60s and by movie standards that essentially means they’re counting down the days until they fall over dead) Like something similar to “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, I expected that the audience this was aiming towards was old people, the kind that would look at a trailer for “Jurassic World” and go “Oh no, that’s too extreme for me! ” Predictably, I was the youngest guy sitting in the theatre and it was pretty full. If you’re thinking of taking grandma to this movie, don’t just automatically assume that she’ll love it though. Both Bryson and Katz have numerous talks about their days chasing tail all over Europe or of what they wish their sex lives are. Sometimes they just curse a lot. Not necessarily a bad thing because I know some of you seniors out there haven’t cleaned up your vocabulary since you got that Tuesday discount, but if my grandmothers were still alive, I would have felt mighty awkward sitting next to them while watching Katz’s more colorful recollections.

    While the first half of the film frequently features uninspired comedy, it goes away eventually. I enjoyed the fact that despite their time apart, Bryson and Katz are friends, get along fairly well and go on a real-life adventure that feels genuine. They’re not going to end up finding some lost treasure of stumble upon a historical re-enactment that will have them running for the hills after they accidentally set off barrels of gunpowder or anything like that. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte have good chemistry between them. I didn’t even mind too much that sometimes, I think Nolte wasn’t even saying lines, he was just growling because the banter between them and the dialogue when it’s just those two is enjoyable and funny. It’s a comedy with a good number of well-earned laughs.

    There are some moments of weak humor in “A walk in the Woods” but it gets better as it goes along and I left it feeling pretty good. Great scenery too, so if you’re trying to convince a friend to go along on a hike with you, this picture will help do the trick. In the end, I’m going to give it a mild recommendation. (Theatrical version on the big screen, September 24, 2015)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  25.9.2015 age: 26-35 2,866 reviews

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