Land of the Lost Review

Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 06.08.2009

For a Will Farrell movie, it works. It actually works.

"Land of the Lost" Review

Will Ferrell- Dr. Rick Marshall
Anna Friel- Holly Cantrell
Danny McBride- Will Stanton
Jorma Taccone- Cha-Ka
John Boylan- Enik
Matt Lauer- Matt Lauer
Leonard Nimoy- The Zarn (voice)
Directed by Brad Silberling
Screenplay by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas, based on the TV series by Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference
Runtime- 93 minutes
Website: http://www.landofthelost.net/

The big hurdle going in for "Land of the Lost," the mega budget big screen adaptation of the weird beard Saturday morning fantasy children's show from the 1970's, was finding a way to make the humor of the flick's star Will Ferrell work within the context of endless computer and practical special effects. Would Ferrell be able to convincingly act with digitally created monsters and backgrounds and environments and would any of it be funny? I'm happy to report that, yes, for the most part, "Land of the Lost" is a successful, weird beard mega budget comedy fantasy brimming with the usual Will Ferrell comedy hooha.

Now, I will say that if you're not a fan of Ferrell's movie work going in you're probably not going to enjoy the movie all that much. Ferrell doesn't dial back his standard oblivious jerk persona at all, even when facing off with vicious dinosaurs and slow moving lizard mutant alien things. As a Farrell movie fan, I was worried that the Ferrell persona wouldn't meld with the special effects and that the result wouldn't be all that "believable." But, as I said in the opening, Ferrell and company somehow pull it off.

That isn't to say the movie isn't stupid. "Land of the Lost" is incredibly stupid. Its stupidity is simply amazing when you actually sit back and think about it for a few minutes. The movie is ridiculous on all fronts. But that's the way it's supposed to be. It's meant to be stupid. That's why, I think, it's both awfully fun and funny.

The story concerns Ferrell's Dr. Rick Marshall, a disgraced scientist attempting to advance wacky theories involving time warps and alternate dimensions and worlds and whatnot and using a machine called a "tachyon amplifier" will allow a person to travel to those alternate dimensions and worlds and whatnot. Months after a disastrous interview with Matt Lauer on "The Today Show," Marshall finds himself teaching elementary school kids his "quantum paleontology" discipline. After that disaster (Marshall deals with lots of disasters in his life), Marshall meets Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel), a British scientist that believes in Marshall's work. She wants to help Marshall build an actual tachyon amplifier and test it. So that's what Marshall does.

Marshall and Holly take the crudely put together amplifier prototype (it occasionally plays music from "A Chorus Line" for some reason) and test it out at a bizarre rest stop/pseudo amusement park/fireworks shop run by redneck Will Stanton (Danny McBride). While going on a tour of a disgusting tunnel ride, the amplifier causes a massive earthquake that, surprise, opens a portal to another dimension. This other dimension, the "Land of the Lost," is a weird mesh of current Earth things, like cars and buildings and landmarks, and old Earth things, like dinosaurs. The lost land is also populated by hairy ape mutant creatures, one of which eventually befriends Marshall, Holly, and Will (that would be Cha-Ka, as played by Jorma Taccone). While Marshall, Holly, and Will are amazed by the new world they've found and love interacting and recording the various creatures and environments they encounter they want to go back to where they came from to show everyone that dimensional travel is possible. The problem is they no longer have the amplifier.

Where did they lose it (well, more specifically, where did Marshall lose it since he was the one wearing it when the dimensional portal thing opened)? No one knows. But since the amplifier is the only way they can get back, they'll have to find it. So that's what Marshall, Holly, and Will do for the rest of the movie, look for the amplifier. They also encounter a midget alien mutant thing named Enik (John Boylan) that seems to know quite a bit about Marshall and his amplifier machine (Enik also has some kind of problem with a creature named The Zarn, voiced by Spock hisself Leonard Nimoy), a bunch of slow moving lizard mutant alien things called sleestaks (some of the scariest looking movie monsters I've seen in a long time. I'm not exaggerating here), and dinosaurs. Will Marshall, Holly, and Will ever find the amplifier and go back home, or will they be forever stuck in the Land of the Lost?

I never watched the show the movie is based on (I'm really only vaguely familiar with the show. I know the show had a memorable theme song and I was aware of the sleestak creatures going in), so I have no idea how close the movie plays to the show's mythology. Obviously the movie, with its PG-13 rating, is a tad more risqué than the children's TV show. Ferrell and McBride litter their various riff conversations with "bad" language and jokes. I'm also willing to bet that no one on the original show ever doused themselves with dinosaur urine or announced to everyone that they planned on masturbating. That's also something you should be aware of before going to see the movie, there's nothing "nice" or quaint about the flick's jokes or characterizations. Again, this is a Will Ferrell movie, not a family fantasy adventure. The movie also isn't as chock full of action as you'd normally expect for a fantasy movie. Large chunks of the movie consist of Ferrell and McBride, and to a lesser extent Friel, firing off verbal jokes and only interacting with eachother and not the special effects around them. I guess what I'm basically saying here is this is not "Men in Black." There's a different kind of comedy and charisma at work here.

Ferrell is his usual great self as Dr. Rick Marshall. Again, if you're not a regular fan of Ferrell's work you're likely to find his character rather annoying and hard to believe in. Marshall is an oblivious jerk from start to finish. He never learns anything and is always wrong, even when he kind of knows what he's talking about, which isn't often. Ferrell is surprisingly good at working with special effects creatures, be it the practical make up monsters like Enik, Cha-Ka, and the skeestaks, and the big, computer generated dinosaurs. He somehow sells it and makes it work. You really believe most of the time that he's actually fending off an attacking dinosaur. His best bit, besides the opening interview with Matt Lauer, is the dinosaur urine bit. It's a perfect example of how a "typical" Will Ferrell scene works (without giving specifics away, let's just say that things don't turn out well for Marshall with the urine). Again, great stuff from Ferrell.

Friel does a pretty decent job as Holly Cantrell, the group straight man. She basically spends most of the movie reacting to Ferrell's stupidity, but she does get a few riff moments later on in the movie that are quite funny. Friel is also very attractive, so when she turns her pants into short shorts, she wins half of the "Is she interesting?" battle. Danny McBride is funny as Will the redneck, although I don't know if I like Will as a character that Marshall and Holly meet out of the blue. It probably would have been better if Will was a confidant of Marshall, like an idiot grad student that got suckered into working with Marshall and couldn't stay away, even after being humiliated along with Marshall when the scientific establishment destroyed Marshall for his crack pot theories. And Jorma Taccone does a pretty decent job as Cha-Ka the mutant ape thing. The ape voice is a little lame (he sounds like an Ewok at times) but Taccone is good at the character's physical bits, so he gets points there.

And then there's Matt Lauer, playing himself. Lauer is only in two scenes, but they are the two scenes you'll likely remember the most afterwards. They're hilarious. Lauer does a great job playing an annoyed version of himself, especially in his last scene. I'm fairly certain that that scene will eventually live forever on youtube. It is that, for the lack of a better word, iconic.

The special effects, both the computer generated ones and the practical make up ones, are great. The CGI effects do have a cheesy quality to them, sure, but they're charming like that. The make up effects, especially the sleestaks, are creepy as hell. If you don't get goose bumps watching the sleestaks walk slowly towards the camera, mouths open revealing two rows of sharp teeth, you’re not alive.

Like most Ferrell movies, "Land of the Lost" will eventually require repeated viewings just so you can catch all of the jokes you may have missed. But first you have to see it once, which I encourage ardent Ferrell fans to do so immediately. It's worth checking out. Everyone else is going to have to use his or her best judgment. Just how much stupidity and general silliness are you willing to put up with? Again, you'll have to make that decision.

Ferrell fans, though, should see this movie. You'll probably like it. I know I did.

So what do we have here? Astronauts getting attacked by something mysterious in a jungle, gratuitous Matt Lauer and "The Today Show," gratuitous Will Ferrell, a funny interview, illegal smoking, fire extinguisher to the head, annoying elementary school kids, gratuitous Anna Friel, a donut stuffed with M&M's, gratuitous motivational poster with a pole vaulter on it, a Zippo lighter with the words "Big Cat" inscribed on it, gratuitous food comas, gratuitous music from "A Chorus Line," a breast mug, gratuitous Danny McBride, a fake cave ride, a big casino model, a massive earthquake, a giant waterfall, gratuitous hairy ape mutant creatures, multiple instances of female boob touching, wallet stealing, gratuitous monster vine attack, gratuitous multiple dinosaur attacks, gratuitous people taking a picture of a dinosaur, T-Rex insulting, gratuitous dinosaur saliva, a giant walnut, a rock full of bugs, rock throwing, a massive vibrating clear box, gratuitous slow moving mutant alien lizards with sharp teeth, gratuitous creature voiced by Leonard Nimoy, a dinosaur urine bath, urine drinking, gratuitous ice cream truck attack, arm ripping, a stretched Hummer limo, gratuitous "Bob's Big Boy" statue, gratuitous catapult, exploding dinosaur, gratuitous attempted masturbation, gratuitous Will Ferrell playing the banjo and singing the "Land of the Lost" theme song, giant mosquito attack, gratuitous volcano hooey, gratuitous half naked Will Ferrell dance, motel pool swimming, gratuitous giant crabs, gratuitous attempted monkey mutant alien French kissing, an implied "69," gratuitous slow moving mutant alien lizard sex, gratuitous slow moving mutant alien lizard skin removal, more dinosaur hooey, a funny bit involving a dinosaur and a pole vault, midget hooey, implied naked women, and a funny bookend scene.

Best lines: (Note: There are so many great lines in this movie that it was hard to keep up with them. This list is really only a sampling of the ones that I caught. Repeated viewings will likely yield more great lines): "Are you smoking? No, I'm making a balloon animal," "Are there any real questions pertaining to science?," "Do dinosaurs have boobs?," "Captain Cook's nipples!," "Is that 'A Chorus Line'?," "This dump is a portal?," "This little bitch I call the Mexican vasectomy," "Say that again and I'll drown you," "Caveologists say this cave is hundreds of years old and holds thousands of mysteries," "You're paying for that. I most certainly am not," "No, there are no show tunes on this ride," "This is not a routine expedition!," "Dr. Marshall, do you know what this means? Yes! It means Matt Lauer can suck it!," "Oh, man, are you touching yourself?," "Great. You've just given murderous primitives the power of fire," "How dare you? How dare you? I mean you no harm. Come here you little shit!," "Bad Cha-Ka! Your loyalty is now in question!," "Forget the Polish, it's the T-Rex's that are the dummies of the world," "Hey, mister. Fuck you," "I think the PHD after my name means I know a little something about dinosaurs," "I bet someone is growing weed in here," "Oh, crap balls," "Try running in serpentine patterns. It's incapable of making immediate course corrections," "How the hell do you set a catapult?," "I did not expect that," "I'm going to miss this place that proves I'm right," "Dude, it looks like they're getting ready to make out," "Are you kidding me? Are you telling me that you've been carrying around a bag of fireworks this whole time? There are at least a dozen situations where we could have used them," "Welcome to the big bang theory my friend," "Come on you big green bastards!," "Oh my God. That is the coolest thing I've ever seen," "You were deuced out by a dinosaur? That is incredibly cool," "I wrestled at Purdue," "Science shows no mercy. And neither do I," and "I just want to say you've grown into a beautiful woman."

The 411: "Land of the Lost" is a surprisingly good and funny Will Ferrell movie. He somehow manages to make his humor work within the context of a fantastical world chock full of CG and practical special effects. I didn't think it would work. I was wrong. I loved it and can't wait to see it again to see what I missed. If you're not a Will Ferrell movie fan, though, I doubt you'll sit through this. It's not your cup of tea. It'll be filled with dinosaur urine. Do you really want to drink that?

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]