Land of the Lost Poster
Stars: Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny R. McBride
Opened: June 5, 2009
Runtime: 1 hr. 33 min.
Rating: PG-13
Land of the Lost was a typical, random, Will Ferrell film. It had it’s ups and downs but for the most part was very entertaining, even for a remake of a classic TV series.
I am going to go ahead and say, I can see why this film is going to piss some people off. There were parts of the film that were quite a stretch from the tv series, the most obvious being that Anna Friel, and Danny McBride are not playing the children. Instead, Friel is a fellow scientist, and McBride is just a redneck. It is also a bit sad, comparing it to the show, that Land of the Lost was just turned into a Will Ferrell raunchfest. However, if you can look past the fact that the film was supposed to be based off of a 1970’s TV series, and you can handle a Will Ferrell comedy, then I feel that you will be mildly enjoyed.
On the positive references to the show, the film does a very good job of portraying the futuristic reptillians that are out to conquer the world. They were very similar to the ones depicted in the TV series. I also must add that Jorma Taccone played a very good Cha-Ka. I was however a bit disappointed with how easily Cha-Ka’s ancient language was so easily translated, but I must say that Cha-Ka’s role definitely made for a very interesting film.
The structure of the film was rather predictable and didn’t contain any major plot twists or surprises, just like most other Ferrell movies. However, the dialogue alone is enough to keep you mildly entertained. The film is filled with little jokes, and one-liners, some of which were hilarious and others plain sucked.
I was actually rather surprised that Land of the Lost was able to hold my attention for the entire length of th film. I was actually expecting to be rather disappointed, because I was never really into the TV series, and remakes are not normally a good thing. The film really did seem to be a stretch from the old, campy, tv series, and I am sure that the true fans are outraged by this adaptation. But I found myself somewhat surprised that Land of the Lost was a funny film, and somewhat entertaining. However, if you don’t like Will Ferrell, or SNL style humor I would stay far away from Land of the Lost.