Genre: Comedy/Adventure
Director: Brad Silberling
Cast: Will Ferrell, Danny R. McBride, Anna Friel, Jorma Taccone
RunTime: 1 hr 41 mins
Released By: UIP
Rating: PG (Some Sexual Humour)
Official Website: http://www.landofthelost.net/

Opening Day: 11 June 2009

Synopsis:

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.

Movie Review:

Will Ferrell has not been in a family friendly comedy since the surprisingly funny yet tender Elf (2003). And if this bloated, big-budget remake of a 1970s television series is anything to go by, he should continue to steer clear of the genre.

There’s no doubt Ferrell’s been cast as disgraced palaeontologist Rick Marshall (Stephen Hawkins calls his big time-warp discovery ‘nonsense’) to reprise his now familiar love-it-or-hate-it man-child comic routine, the kind that consists of him being a complete idiot and making you laugh at him without ever feeling bad about it. Yes, to some (me included), Ferrell can be very funny when he’s being crude, blasé and sometimes even downright offensive.

But this is supposed to be PG-material, so there’s not really much room for Ferrell to be that loud, rude and vulgar fool that he has since perfected in movies such as Tallageda Nights (2006), Blades of Glory (2007) and Step Brothers (2008). Instead, first-time feature-film writers Chris Henchy (of TV’s Entourage) and Dennis McNicholas (a Saturday Night Live writer-alum) offer Ferrell an endless stream of physical gags to work with.

One minute he’s chased by a certain T-Rex offended by his insult that its brain is the size of a walnut, another minute he’s running away from lizard-like alien creatures called Sleestaks. In between, there’s also flying reptiles, a gigantic crab and an ape-man called Chaka (Jorma Taccone) who takes a particularly fond interest in grabbing the boobs of Ferrell’s research assistant Holly (Pushing Diasies’ Anna Friel).

Parents- if that puts a frown across your face, you’re probably right to be worried, especially if you’re bringing your kid, because there’s a fair bit of eyebrow-raising sexual humour here. Yes, apart from a hinted Sleestak making-out, there’s also Ferrell telling you how he places his hand down his shorts when he needs some cheering up.

Ferrell’s aptitude for raunchy humour is shared by his co-star Danny McBride, starring as redneck survivalist Will, whose rundown water-ride becomes the time warp by which Ferrell’s Dr Rick Marshall and Holly fall through to end up in a place where apparently past, present and future get mashed into one. It’s the land of the lost, though what seems oddly misplaced in this supposed all-ages family adventure is Ferrell and McBride’s adult humour.

That’s not the only thing that’s lost. For one, there’s Henchy and McNicholas’ lack of a story, so much so that the movie feels more like a series of cheesy sketches haphazardly stitched together. There’s also their lack of imaginative talent, such that some mildly amusing gags like Chaka’s boob-grabbing outstay their welcome. And then there’s Brad Silberling’s lack of direction, much like Ferrell’s “serpentine” directionless running around while being chased by the T-Rex affectionately (or maybe not so affectionately) referred to as Grumpy.

And just like that Grumpy T-Rex is smarter than Ferrell thinks, so too is the audience to know that they are being led aimlessly around a theme-park excuse of a movie. Certainly, there are some jokes that will make you laugh at their absurdity, but they are quite unfortunately lost amidst the rest of this sloppy mess. If Matt Lauer wonders why Ferrell’s character spent US$50 million researching time warps, it’s only natural audiences should ask how US$100 million got spent on this lazy big-screen version of a Saturday-morning TV-show.

Movie Rating:



(Hardly raunchy enough for Ferrell’s fans, nor family-friendly enough for kids, this bloated theme-park of a movie belongs right where its title says)

Review by Gabriel Chong