After writing a little bit on Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was obviously inspired by the book of the same title, it seemed fitting that I'd also write something about Land of the Lost, which is also inspired by the book carrying the same title.
Coincidentally, both films are comedies starring a lead you either like or loathe. In the case of Land of he Lost, it's SNL veteran Will Ferrell (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) taking the point, followed by Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Danny McBride (Pineapple Express) and Jorma Taccone (Also of SNL fame) as the little monkey-boy Chaka.
The story is about Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell), who specializes in time cracks and tachyons, and who thoroughly believes time travel is possible. After being shot down on a major talk show, Marshall is reduced to giving tours at the local tar pit park, until he meets Holy Cantrell (Friel), an ex-Cambridge student who is obsessed by his work and truly believes time travel possible.
Fuelled by her belief and some convenient proof that parallel universes exist, Marshall builds a machine that can harness the tachyon power and thus opens portals to said universes.
Much like JttCotE, they stumble across such a portal and end up in another universe together with redneck Will Stanton (McBride). In the process, Marshall's device is lost to serve as a major plot point later on. In this new universe they meet Chaka (Taccone), a primate who turns out to be an overthrown prince, which is mostly irrelevant to the rest of the story.
The four of them piss off a T-Rex in the process of rummaging through this universe and eventually end up making a deal with a lizard man who claims that he's a scientist set on stopping another, evil, lizard man who is planning to take over the world. He just needs Marshall's tachyon-thing to do it. Go figure.
It all leads to a wild goose chase through the Land of the Lost in search of the device that will send them home.
Saying Will Ferrell is almost the same as saying 'uncomfortable humour'. And not in the same sense that Brandon Fraser has his way of uncomfortable humour. Fraser pulls it off in a way that doesn't make you want to punch him in the face so that he'll just shut up. Will Ferrell on the other hand, dominates the film by talking way too much.
Every single observation he makes as the scientist he's playing is followed by a stream of remarks about said observation which he thinks are true but are immediately countered by whatever he was observing doing the exact opposite of what Ferrell's character was predicting. This goes on through the entire film.
In fact, most of the entertainment comes from McBride, who plays his role with an air of carelessness that fits the character perfectly. Add to that the back-and-forth camaraderie between him and the monkey boy and you have yourself something to laugh at. Another good save is the female lead. Friel's appearance is one for sore eyes next to Ferrell's uncomfortable posture and saves the story more than a few times. Why she had to have a British accent s beyond me though. Maybe because she studied at Cambridge.
In it's entirety though, it's an entertaining film. It has dinosaurs, lizard-men, monkey-people and time travel, so something good is bound to happen. Even Will Ferrell can't change that.
