Wild America

It's the summer of 1967, and after years of risking their little brother's life for the sake of their 8mm homemade action films, teenage brothers Marty and Mark Stouffer get their hands on a 16mm camera and suddenly become aspiring documentarians of America's endangered wildlife. So off the two go in the old family truck with the inevitable "Born To Be Wild" playing in the background, only to discover states later that little bro Marshall (played by Home Improvement's annoyingly lovable Jonathan Taylor Thomas) has stowed away in the back seat. What follows is a series of harrowing adventures with swamp 'gators, stampeding horses, overly playful moose, and light-sleeping bears -- all caught on tape.

Wild America takes a lot of obvious liberties with the true story of the Stouffer brothers (whose own documentary series of the same name later appeared on PBS) in order to make the Hollywood cut: one perfectly choreographed "close-call" action sequence after another, casting that would make any pre-teen girl swoon, and a moral-of-the-story ending delivered with as much subtlety as a bear claw to the back of the head. Throw in a couple of stereotypically "crazy" roadside prophets, a handful of cutesy one-liners, and a few more clichés (e.g., "Music soothes the savage beast") and you've got the makings of the ultimate cross-country race between Man, or rather, Boy, and Extinction. Guess who wins. At the Harbour Mall, Holiday, Showcase, Tri-Boro, Westerly, and Woonsocket cinemas.

-- Lorelei Sharkey