Movie Review: Land of the Lost

Time travel toilet humor meets sci-fi grossout in Brad Silberling’s Land Of The Lost, a spoof of a popular 1970s Saturday morning television kids show created by Sid and Marty Krofft, in which the writing is as primitive as the tacky prehistoric decor.

Maybe it’s something about the primitive setting (or the even more primitive script), but Will Ferrell lets his bumptiously, merrily masochistic id hang out in Land of the Lost. As Dr. Rick Marshall, a crackpot scientist who gets pulled into an alternate universe of dinosaurs, rubbery goggle-eyed lizard creatures, and apes who look like men in matted Isaac Mizrahi sweaters, Ferrell shrieks in terror like a teenage girl on a roller-coaster ride, and at one point he splatters himself with dino urine. When that stings his eyes, he tries to ease the pain by splattering on more. (It doesn’t work.) A giant mosquito sucks the blood right out of him, and an ongoing battle with a T. rex turns into a kind of 12-step test of our hero’s self-esteem, which is roughly a notch below Stuart Smalley’s.

You get the feeling that Ferrell is working this hard to beat himself up because Land of the Lost, a movie based on one of the cheesiest ’70s Saturday-morning kids’ shows ever devised, is anything-goes junk. The film’s only conviction is its investment in its total lack of conviction. With three sidekicks to play off — Danny McBride as a good-ol’-boy survivalist, Anna Friel as an eye-candy science groupie, and Jorma Taccone as Chaka, the nattering, boy-faced ape-man — Ferrell ricochets from one pouty-angry sissy-man routine to the next. He even drops a bitchy F-bomb, which more or less signals the desperation of this grab-bag kiddie fantasy. Land of the Lost has stray amusing ?tidbits, but overall it leaves you feeling splattered.

Genre: Adventure, Comedy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Studio: Universal Pictures

Director: Brad Silberling

Screenwriter: Chris Henchy, Dennis McNicholas

Trailer

Movie Website: LandoftheLost.net

Actors/Actresses: Will Ferrell, Danny R. McBride, Anna Friel, Jorma Taccone

Our Verdict:

Every so often Will Ferrell’s strong comedic talents rise out of the ashes and there are a few amusing moments throughout the course of the movie that’ll make you smile. But there’s not enough of them and certainly not enough to warrant watching the film.