Land of the Lost
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Veering as far from his usual shtick as possible, simply by substituting a sports arena for this big-budget remake of a little known (on these shores anyway) cult TV show from the 70’s, Will Ferrell hopes that Land of the Lost see’s his marmite appeal spread in the Step Brothers, Anchorman direction, rather than the Semi-Pro one. The less-than-crater sized dent it made at the US Box Office would suggest a double box-set with the basketball dud, but that’s not to say that it’s appeal is totally extinct. The most damning indictment for it is that it feels like a vehicle that even Eddie Murphy might have turned down.
Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell) is something of a joke in his preferred field of study; his ludicrous theories on time warps culminate in an on-air attack on TV host Matt Lauer (a US anchorman. No idea? Join the club). Forced to teach sarcastic little ankle biters at a local museum, he is on the cusp of overdosing on fatty foods when enthusiastic admirer Holly (Brookside exile, Anna Friel) convinces him to persevere with building his tachyon amplifier and blow them back through time millions of years to the age of dinosaurs, cavemen, and lizardy things in really, really terrible rubber suits.
$100 million doesn’t get you much these days, and what’s left must have been put in the scriptwriter’s pot. Everything about Land of the Lost is pre-historic; the jokes – a giant walnut gag is direct from the Airplane cutting room floor – the sets – the entire film is so obviously filmed on a giant sound stage, this will either detract from the narrative interest or add to the kitsch homage element depending on your levels of cynicism.
Who is this for? Too racy for kids – one of the many jokes that fall flat features a boob groping caveman – and too juvenile for adults – Ferrell douses himself in dinosaur urine - it’s a completely imbalanced mess of ideas.
That scattershot approach can usually benefit a film starring Ferrell as it clearly plays to his improvisational comedic strengths. Land of the Lost fails as a cohesive movie and then doesn’t even allow its trump card headliner a chance to shine, Ferrell is stifled by the rigidity of a terrible script, only getting better as the film becomes more manically random. A wonderful Cher duet with the equally repressed Danny McBride, and a completely out-of-place Fear and Loathing episode are the only mirth bringers.
And fresh from the short-lived, but wonderfully successful US show Pushing Daisies, Friel is reduced to an “ee-by-gum” accent and absolutely no one liners.
Remember that remake of Lost in Space? This is similar to that, in style and outcome, a popular cult TV show that was remade to universal derision, compared with an unknown cult TV show that deserves the same accolades. Get Lost.
