Let me make this clear, I am not a big Will Ferrell fan and I don’t generally watch films he stars in. I will also say that I really dislike when he plays over-exaggerated stereotyped caricature characters. I think his best role is when he voiced the Man in the yellow hat for the Curious George film. You may think that means I disliked Land of the Lost and you would be incorrect. Make no mistake, this isn’t a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly made me laugh, frequently and out loud. Being a comedy film, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that was what it was aiming for so, you know, mission accomplished there. It certainly helps that Ferrell was tempered by the cute-as-a-button Anna Friel and nearly had the film stolen from him by Danny McBride, who makes it hard to breathe he’s that funny. Jorma Taccone also puts in a near-faithful performance as Cha-Ka, playing the monkey-like native as a more adult version of the original.
For those unfamiliar with the story, this retelling of Land of the Lost revolves around Rick Marshall, a disgraced paleontologist, Holly Cantrell, the only one who believes his wacky time theories and tour guide Will Stanton, who find themselves in a land that seems comprised of creatures and objects from different times. Dinosaurs, monkey-people and the reptilian Sleestaks abound. In the original, Will and Holly were Rick’s kids, but this time the trio are all adults and unrelated. There are lots of nods to the original show in character and place names with the Sleestaks getting a bit of an upgrade. The 1970s version of the hissing lizards gave me bad dreams as a kid, but here they’ve acquired a double row of sharp teeth to quadruple the creepy factor. The only time things falter are when the jokes resort to your garden variety bathroom humor. As long as the lens is focused firmly on the source material things are funny. There a get minor subplot that dispels the theorized stupidity of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, plus a neat little voice cameo. The whole thing is book ended by two interviews with Rick Marshall by Matt Laurer on the Today Show that I found especially hilarious.
Was it all pretty juvenile? Probably. But it parodied a Saturday morning show that’s nowhere near as good as I remember it being from a child’s perspective. I don’t think I’ve laughed that much at a flat-out comedy in a long time. I enjoyed it and think you will too. Go see it to have fun and don’t be so serious about it.