LAND OF THE LOST Review

Other than the surprisingly decent Visual Effects, let me just come right out and say it, This movie is NOT FUNNY! Will Ferrell used to make me laugh for pete’s sake, what the hell happened?! First Semi-Pro, and then Step Brothers and now this?! I used to watch the old show when I was a kid, granted… I don’t remember much anymore but I don’t remember it being this dumb. Hands down, LAND OF THE LOST is one of the worst comedy movies of the year.

Will Ferrell stars as has-been scientist Dr. Rick Marshall, sucked into one and spat back through time. Way back. Now, Marshall has no weapons, few skills and questionable smarts to survive in an alternate universe full of marauding dinosaurs and fantastic creatures from beyond our world – a place of spectacular sights and super-scaled comedy known as the Land of the Lost.
Sucked alongside him for the adventure are crack-smart research assistant Holly (Anna Friel) and a redneck survivalist (Danny McBride) named Will. Chased by T-Rex and stalked by painfully slow reptiles known as Sleestaks, Marshall, Will and Holly must rely on their only ally – a primate called Chaka (Jorma Taccone) to navigate out of the hybrid dimension. Escape from this routine expedition gone awry and they’re heroes. Get stuck, and they’ll be permanent refugees in the Land of the Lost.

This is one of those movies that just gets worse and worse and worse as we watch every single scene. It’s like getting the air sucked out of you very slowly. 93 minutes feels like an eternity. LAND OF THE LOST’s mistake is a combination of many things. Screenwriters Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas basically neglect all the basic things needed to tell a story. The plot is too simple and often doesn’t make any sense. It masquerades as a family movie and yet the humor is very adult oriented but those of us adults who like stupid dirty jokes once in a while wouldn’t laugh either because…it’s just NOT FUNNY. I could’ve tolerated the terrible plot if the comedy hits the target but it misses every time, it doesn’t even come close.

You’ll end up not giving a damn about the characters, which is a bit sad especially because Chaka is quite classic and yet they’ve turned him into this horny little annoying punk. Ferrell, once again, does his usual, ridiculous acts of making fun of himself but he’s the only who thinks he’s still got it. I think the problem is that we’ve grown too accustomed to his style that we’ve gotten sick and tired. He comes across as doing the same thing all over again, the same immature predictable old jokes that have no power over us anymore.
Danny McBride who plays the sidekick Will is just the same, if not worse. He’s supposed to be this cocky white trailer park loud mouth, arrogant bastard but none of what he says and does are entertaining. The movie even has to have a narcotic fruit that they eat just to see if we’d be amused at them getting high but nope, that too is ineffective. This worries me because Ferrell is prepping McBride to be the next lead comedy movie star but I don’t think he’s ready.
Brit hottie Anna Friel is an eye candy but her sex appeal isn’t enough to save this disaster.

Director Brad Silberling obviously tries to incorporate the elements from the original series into this movie version. The sleestaks are just as cheesy and there’s that cave. I do enjoy the moments when they get chased by the Dinosaurs, pretty thrilling but that’s also where the weak moments lie, at least on the part of Ferrell who does nothing but screaming 80% of the time. The Dinosaurs look pretty cool, not the best CG work but not too shabby either.
Once again, none of these very few impressive factors could compensate for the dreadful movie-watching experience. If I were the Krofft brothers, the creator of the original, I’d be unbelievably embarrassed of this rendition, I’d hide under a rock or check myself into an actual land of the lost.

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